Storm Hunter has breezed her way into the main draw of another grand slam, following up her terrific run at the French Open by qualifying for Wimbledon for the first time.
Once again, the Rockhampton doubles luminary, a left-hander hailing from Rod Laver's home town, demonstrated her singles ranking of 162 really doesn't do justice to her considerable ability as she completed her three-match qualifying campaign on Thursday without dropping a set.
The 28-year-old Queenslander defeated Japan's Nao Hibino, who's ranked 37 places above her, 6-3 6-4 in just over an hour and a quarter on the final day of the highly-competitive qualifying event at Roehampton.
She was the only one of 11 Australians who entered qualifying to make it through to the main show which begins on Monday a couple of miles up the road at the All England Club, after both Olivia Gadecki and Marc Polmans failed at the final hurdle.
Hunter has shown several times she's an aggressive singles player to be reckoned with, not least with her brilliant performances which helped Australia make the final of the Billie Jean King Cup last year.
Promising to make more of a go at her singles ambitions this year, the woman who's the world's No.6 doubles player and makes up a formidable team with Belgian star Elise Mertens, has now pulled off the difficult feat of qualifying in back-to-back grand slams.
She beat the top-seeded qualifier, Russia's Elina Avanesyan, in the second round before convincingly defeating 22nd seed Hibino with four breaks of serve.
Her entry into the main draw means Australia's representation in the women's singles when the draw is made on Friday will be doubled, as Daria Saville had been the only entry thanks to her protected ranking following injury.
Rising 21-year-old Gold Coast player Gadecki, the No.27 qualifying seed, failed to achieve her dream of finally walking through the All England gates as she went down to Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-3 6-3.
None of the Australian men made it through qualifying, with Polmans, who's been making a fine comeback from an ankle injury that ruined his 2022 campaign, the last one to tumble on Thursday, losing to the experienced German Oscar Otte 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-5.
That left the men's Wimbledon contingent at eight - Alex de Minaur, Nick Kyrgios, Max Purcell, Jason Kubler, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, Chris O’Connell and Aleksandar Vukic.
