Storm Hunter’s amazing first at French open caps epic day for Aussies

Storm Hunter has put the exclamation mark on a stunning 12 months with a career-first grand slam win after booking her place in the second round of the French Open on a superb day for Aussie tennis. Compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis also won his first match at Roland Garros in eight years with a stunning upset of Britain's Dan Evans, while Jason Kubler made it a third win for the Aussies after booking his spot in the second round after a five-set thriller.

It was an especially memorable day for Hunter though, after she became just the second Australian women's qualifier to reach the second round of the main draw in Paris with a fighting 4-6 6-2 6-4 defeat of higher-ranked Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz. Hunter continued her magical run from qualifying to match Sophie Ferguson's 2010 feat.

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The West Australian - who was the unsung hero of Australia's charge to the final of last year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals - made a mockery of her lowly ranking to seal her incredible career first. Hunter had fallen in the first round of all seven of her previous grand-slam main-draw appearances - five times at the Australian Open and at the 2021 French and US Opens - but rallied from a service break down in the deciding set to book her spot in the second round.

Ranked 110 places below Parrizas Diaz at world No.204, Hunter refused to throw in the towel after surrendering a 4-2 lead to drop the first set after losing four straight games. She had fought desperately to claim the first service break of the match on her fifth opportunity in the sixth game, before briefly losing her way.

Hunter then broke Parrizas Diaz in the fourth game of the second set with a series of forceful forehands before levelling the match at one set apiece. She trailed 4-2 in the deciding set but again rallied with some do-or-die groundstrokes from the back to secure her breakthrough win in two hours and 10 minutes. The Aussie will play either Ukraine's newly-crowned Stuttgart champion Elina Svitolina or Italian 26th seed Martina Trevisan in the second round.

"It was honestly a great match and I'm just so happy to win my first match in a slam," Hunter said. "It's really amazing.

"I mean, I didn't grow up on clay. I grew up in Perth on grass courts. I moved to Melbourne when I was 17 and that was my first experience on actual clay. For me to be able to play good on this surface, it took me probably a while to believe in that."

Aussies flying on day one at French Open

Fellow Aussie wildcard Kokkinakis was over the moon after tasting victory on the Parisian clay for the first time in eight years, with an incredible 6-4 6-4 6-4 upset over British 20th seed Dan Evans. The injury-plagued Kokkinakis blasted winner after winner to notch his first win at Roland Garros since reaching the third round as a teenager back in 2015.

Kokkinakis - guaranteed a return to the world's top 100 - will have the chance to equal his best showing at Roland Garros against either Switzerland's 2015 French Open champion Stan Wawrinka or Spanish veteran Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Completing an opening day to savour for Australia, Kubler recorded a tenacious five-set triumph over Argentine qualifying lucky loser Facundo Diaz Acosta. Kubler battled away for almost three and a half hours before prevailing 1-6 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-1 to give Australia an unlikely three-from-three start at the year's second grand slam. Kim Birrell fell painfully short of converting her wildcard entry into a second-round foray, losing 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 to Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean.

Birrell's defeat was the one blip on an extraordinary day one for the Australian contingent though. The trio of triumphs left Aussie tennis fans bubbling with excitement on social media.

with AAP

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