Storm Hunter was briefly upgraded to ‘Hurricane’ Hunter before her gale of winners subsided and her chance of the greatest win of her career against Ukraine star Elina Svitolina got simply blown away at the French Open.
Rockhampton’s Hunter, who hails from the same Queensland town as a rather better-known tennis southpaw Rod Laver, started off by playing a match the great man would have been proud of at Roland Garros on Wednesday.
But the storm blew itself out after the first set as Hunter eventually succumbed 2-6 6-3 6-1 to the quality Ukrainian whose successful, politically charged return to the circuit after giving birth to a daughter has been a big talking point at the Paris grand slam.
On a disappointing morning for the Australian challenge on the Parisian red clay, Hunter’s fellow Queenslander Jason Kubler departed in the men’s second round, beaten by the veteran Italian swashbuckler Fabio Fognini 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.
Hunter’s defeat ended the Australian women’s fairly flimsy singles challenge at Roland Garros, with Hunter’s fine run through the qualifiers and first-round win over Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz the undoubted highlight.
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For a while, though, it looked as if it would be surpassed on a fittingly gusty morning on the Simonne Mathieu showcourt.
The 28-year-old Hunter, who’s been better known as a world-class doubles player, proved unstoppable in the opening set, racing into a 4-0 lead as she took advantage of Svitolina still appearing rusty and rattled.
Hunter, a mixed doubles champion at the US Open last year, was completely dominating her illustrious opponent behind a cracking forehand that produced 11 first-stanza winners.
And when she then earned a break at the start of the second, Hunter, playing in the second round of a slam for the first time in eight attempts, must have been scenting completely uncharted territory as she made her ranking of 204 appear a nonsense.
But watched by husband, French star Gael Monfils, Svitolina, who has been using her return to the circuit as a showcase to call for more support for her war-ravaged nation, was evidently determined not to be derailed and, inexorably, began to wear Hunter down with the accuracy of her groundstrokes.
When Melbourne-based Hunter got broken in the sixth game of the second set with a loose forehand to go 4-2 down, the signs were ominous and, though she grabbed back a break – her fifth of the match – she only won one more game after that as Svitolina squeezed more errors out of her.
Svitolina, whose ranking is now 192 as she works her way back to the top, again looked a player to be avoided in the draw as she finally sealed victory with her 24th winner of the match after an hour and 49 minutes.
“It’s been a lot of tennis through the qualifiers, but it was still an incredible experience. I don’t see it as a disappointment,” said Hunter.
“It was a great match on a beautiful court and to play second round of a slam, I’ll take that any day.”
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Out on court 6, world No.69 Kubler, who was the last Aussie man standing at last year’s Roland Garros, found the mercurial 36-year-old Fognini, who’s dropped to 130 in the rankings, to be on one of his more focused days as, clad in menacing piratical all-black, the Italian gave him a bit of a clay-court lesson.
The key was the second-set breaker in which Fognini forced four errors from Kubler before the man from San Remo went on to seal the final set with two more of his seven breaks, ending with a glorious forehand winner, his 25th in all.
