Roaring winds. Torrential rain. For most, the WTA Finals in Cancún, Mexico last month were mayhem. Yet for Australian Storm Hunter – as she watched a key clash alongside her husband, Loughlin Hunter, with the doubles No 1 ranking on the line – they brought a moment of serenity.
“Once it happened, it was kind of weird,” Hunter says, after Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lost the decisive match to secure the Australian’s place at the summit. “We both looked at each other and smiled, and he gave me a hug. It was just this weird but really nice moment.”
Hunter’s achievement is rare. She is only the second Australian woman to finish the year as the world No 1 in doubles, after Sam Stosur in 2006, and only the third to ever reach the top ranking, alongside Stosur and Renae Stubbs.
Yet the historical significance of her achievement was the furthest thing from Hunter’s and her husband’s minds.
“It’s funny because everyone’s like, ‘what did you say to each other?’”, Hunter says. “We literally didn’t say a word. We just looked at each other and smiled, and that was enough. It was just a really lovely moment, it was very special.”
Hunter and her husband have been together for close to a decade, yet were only married late last year. An even more significant step came in the middle of 2023: Loughlin joined Storm, formerly Storm Sanders, on tour.
“He’s not from tennis,” she says. “So yeah, it is definitely a big adjustment for him.”
The move is a natural evolution for the couple, as Hunter fulfils her promise on tour. It gives them a chance to spend the year together, maintain companionship and routine, and share the experience of travelling around the world. And her decision to take his name has produced one of the most formidable monikers on tour.
“People say, ‘oh, it’s a superhero name’,” she says. “It’s kind of a running joke with my friends, and even just randoms. When I have to go and pick something up from the post office, they check my licence, and it’s got Storm Hunter. They look at it two or three times, and think it’s a fake name.”
On the court, too, Hunter is adjusting to a new partner dynamic. Her climb to the very top of the doubles rankings was barely conceivable at the start of the year. Back then, she had only just broken into the doubles Top 10 and hadn’t yet worked out a partner for 2023.
Then, a surprise call from Elise Mertens, a three-time grand slam doubles title winner. She wondered whether Hunter would consider playing with her in 2023.
“I was like, ‘wow, this is an incredible opportunity’,” Hunter says. “I honestly found it very strange that she was asking me because I was like, surely she has a lot of offers of partners and I hadn’t started asking anyone.”
The Belgian proved a good judge. The pair won WTA 1000-level titles in Rome and Guadalajara and reached the Wimbledon final. Their success has propelled the Australian into a new stage of her career.
Mertens and Hunter have decided to pursue playing with others in 2024. (Hunter says the separation was amicable.) The Australian is now working out a schedule alongside new – but familiar – partner Katerina Siniakova from the Czech Republic. The pair made the final of Adelaide in January and won the title in Berlin last year.
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But the 29-year-old’s doubles ambitions are being balanced by a renewed focus on singles.
“I definitely want to give my singles one last crack,” Hunter says. “I have the belief in myself that even if my doubles ranking falls a little bit, I can get back up there if I decide to finish my singles career.
“I’m lucky I get to practise with [world singles No 5] Pegula and [singles No 3] Gauff. I’m very lucky that I have relationships with those girls now. It gives me that confidence and that’s why I want to play a bit more singles because I have a bit of more confidence in myself.”
Hunter will start the year playing in front of her friends and family for the first time, for Australia at the United Cup in Perth. She is the reserve singles player and is down to play mixed doubles alongside Matt Ebden, another West Australian.
“My parents have travelled a little bit, but not much,” Hunter says. “They haven’t really watched me play live for a very long time and my grandparents haven’t seen me play live since I was like 14 so it’s going to be a very, very special moment.”
While she has singles goals for 2024, Hunter is adamant she couldn’t have got to where she has without doubles. Hunter has reached $4m in career prize money, largely thanks to her doubles success, and hopes younger Australian players can recognise the possibilities of doubles.
“I’m trying to inspire the girls to – if they’re thinking about stopping playing singles – think of doubles as an amazing career opportunity as well,” she says. “You can be playing the best tournaments in the world, playing in the biggest stadiums, doing what you love and then also making good money. I think that’s a path that a lot of our players haven’t really explored recently.”