Australian tennis star opens up on the Achilles injury which has shattered her Olympic dream
Coming off a career-best season and reaching world No. 1 in doubles at the end of 2023, Storm Hunter was on a high and striving for Paris. Then a snap decision on the practice court changed everything.
Australian tennis star Storm Hunter has revealed the sliding doors moment on the practice court, which preceded the devastating Achilles injury that has shattered her dream of chasing a medal at the Paris Olympics.
Opening up on her injury heartbreak five weeks after undergoing surgery on her Achilles, Hunter told of how she had been about to wrap up the Australian team’s final practice session ahead of last month’s Billie Jean King Cup tie in Brisbane before opting to play one more game to refine her serve.
The 29-year-old ruptured her right Achilles on the next point and now faces up to 12 months on the sidelines, ruling her out of the Paris Games and next year’s Australian Open.
Coming off a career-best season, the injury was a cruel blow for Hunter, who finished 2023 as the world doubles No. 1 in the WTA year-end rankings.
Hunter had also just reached a career-high singles ranking of 114 in April, following her best singles performance at the Australian Open when she charged into the third round.
While she faces a long recovery, Hunter has already vowed to make a comeback and, at this stage, is targeting a return for next year’s clay court season.
Hunter said she had now come to terms with her injury setback, but revealed how “unlucky” she had been after making the decision to stay on court to hone her serve when she could have packed up her racquet.
“It was literally our last practice before the tie and I had already been nominated to play, we had done the draw, done the hand shakes and everything and the last few minutes of the practice I just felt a pop when I went to run,” Hunter said.
“We had literally sat down at the change of ends and gone, ‘Do you want to play anymore?’. I was like ‘I just want to serve one more game because I wanted to feel a bit better on the serve’.
“Our coach ‘Pratty’ (Nicole Pratt) was like ‘You don’t really need to play one more game’ and I was like ‘I do, I just need to feel it’. Then the next point it happened.
“I went to run forward and to be honest, I actually felt like someone had thrown a ball at me and hit me in the back of my leg and I was like ‘Why would someone throw a ball at me?’.
“I kind of knew straight away what I had done.
“We were like, ‘Wow, it’s just unlucky’. My foot was just in the position that it didn’t like and it is kind of just bad luck I guess.”
After successful surgery, Hunter is now getting about on crutches and wearing a moon boot and said she had come to terms with her injury setback.
The world doubles No. 4 was refusing to feel “sorry for herself”, but admitted it would be hard watching Roland Garros from afar when the French Open starts.
“I’ve accepted what has happened, but even now with Roland Garros starting, it eats at you a little bit, like I should be there playing,” Hunter said.
“There were a lot of tears at first that weekend (in Brisbane), even with the team.
“My personality is that I’m always quite a positive person. I know it is a very shitty situation, but at the same time, I’m realistic that it happens and it’s sport, it’s my job, but it’s not my life.
“It obviously sucks, but people have worse things going on and I’m looking to just progress every week and get better and I want to be back playing so I have that motivation.
“I’m not looking back going ‘Why did this happen to me? Or ‘Poor me’. I’m not feeling sorry for myself at all, I’m just looking to move forward.”
Of all the tennis Hunter is set to miss while she is sidelined, one event will hurt more than most – the Olympics.
“That was the hardest for sure. That was, honestly, the first thing in my mind when it happened,” Hunter said.
“I have been quite vocal about that for me being a childhood dream.
“Obviously I got to experience that (in Tokyo), but going in as one of the top ranked players in doubles and then mixed – I have been playing with Matt Ebden – it’s obviously an opportunity that comes once every four years.
“I was with Ellen (Perez) in Brisbane and we were going to play together, so we both had a tear together because that dream is over for now.
“Speaking to Matt Ebden and Ellen, we were like, ‘We want to win a medal for our country …. we want to do this for Australia and make everybody back home really proud of us’.
“Obviously we have all the slams in between, but that to me meant everything.
“At the moment, LA seems very, very far away so we are not sure about that.”
Hunter hopes to be walking without her moon boot three-months post-surgery before she can start to strengthen her Achilles tendon and gradually build up towards a return to the court.
She said it would be hard to miss the Australian Open, but hoped to be back playing in the lead-up to next year’s French Open.
“Missing out on the Australian summer also hurts coming from the summer I had this year, which was the best ever. I had so much fun,” said Hunter, who was a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open.
“To miss that as well is pretty heartbreaking. I have done it before when I had a shoulder injury in 2019 …. but it was different because I was not competing for slams in doubles then, I wasn’t at that stage so it was a little bit easier to deal with.
“I think next year will be different because I had that really good summer this year and had so many amazing memories and moments. I’m getting older, too, so I don’t know how many more Australian Opens I have left, so it is like ‘Wow, this sucks’.
“The target in my head that I have got is the clay season next year.
“It depends on what I plan to come back to, singles or doubles or both, that will also change our return to play protocols.
“Once I start progressing through the stages (of my recovery) we can kind of have a little bit more of a look at the goals and what I kind of need to achieve physically before we can go ‘That’s a real target to hit’.”
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