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'Absolute hero' Storm Hunter's wild 36 hours from Indian Wells to Miami, as told by Daria Saville

The Aussie finished runner-up in doubles in Indian Wells on Saturday, and needed to race to Miami through flight delays and missed connections for her first-round qualifying match on Sunday.

ByBaseline Staff

Published Mar 18, 2024

The balance between singles and doubles on the professional tennis tour, particularly if you're an elite player in the latter who hopes to make strides in the former, isn't an easy one—and the last 36 hours for Australia's Storm Hunter proves it.

The 29-year-old Aussie, ranked No. 3 in doubles but No. 122 in singles, had to hustle coast-to-coast, even under the best of circumstances, from championship weekend at the BNP Paribas Open to a first-round qualifying match (and win) in Miami a day later. But as chronicled by her compatriot Daria Saville, the left-hander overcame adversity at every turn.

The journey began for Hunter on Saturday afternoon, as she raced to the airport for a 3 p.m. flight to Dallas, for an ensuing connection to Miami after she and Katerina Siniakova finished as runners-up to Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens in Indian Wells.

But a delay led to Hunter, her husband Loughlin Hunter and coach Nicole Pratt, missing that flight, and eventually, they slept for five hours in Dallas before getting re-booked on a 7 a.m. flight to Maimi.

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After an 11 a.m. arrival in Miami, per Saville, the group had to wait 40 minutes for their luggage, leading to Hunter asking Saville if she had a "spare pair of shorts" via WhatsApp as a back-up plan.

If you forgot anything, I got stuff here," Saville said. "I always forget stuff, so I overpack."

"[A] bit going on in the past 36 hours," Hunter later wrote as she reposted Saville's stories to her own Instagram. "Dash always has my back."

Evenutally, Hunter arrived to Hard Rock Stadium 45 minutes prior to her 2 p.m. warm-up with Saville, a few hours before she took the court against Alizé Cornet—a match she eventually won 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and 37 minutes. She trailed 4-2 in both the first and third sets.

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Will Hunter's hard work be rewarded with a place in the Miami Open main draw? She faces German Jule Niemeier on Monday afternoon in the final qualifying round.