Daria Saville, Arina Rodionova and Sam Stosur hail teammate Storm Hunter’s support ahead of Day Two of their Billie Jean King Cup Qualifier against Mexico.
Brisbane, 12 April 2024 | Dan Imhoff
Australiaβs Billie Jean King Cup team laid down an early marker on Day One of the qualifying tie against Mexico, determined to cement a finals return in honour of injured compatriot Storm Hunter.
Hunter suffered a serious Achilles injury, which threatened to sideline her for most of the season, on the eve of the first dayβs play.
Daria Saville and Arina Rodionova admitted they had added incentive to secure the opening two rubbers against underdog opponents Marcela Zacarias and Giuliana Olmos, respectively, following Hunterβs cruel blow.
βYesterday was a pretty tough day for us [after Hunterβs injury], pretty emotionalβ¦ Weβre giving Storm a lot of love and shout-out to the Mexican team, they got Storm flowers, theyβre super nice,β Saville said.
βYesterday what happened with Storm, it gave me perspective again that now Iβm kind of motivated even more because itβs kind of like, oh God, this can happen and this has happened to me.
βWhenever I come back the first tournaments [from injury] Iβm, like, super excited and motivated but then you get back to routine and you probably take a few things for granted, so now that it happened to my best friend itβs like you really canβt take anything for granted.β
> READ: Saville, Rodionova lift Australia to 2-0 lead over Mexico
Team captain Sam Stosur said a decision on who would take the court for Australia on the final dayβs play in singles and doubles would be finalised once the team had reconvened.
Australia needs to clinch just one more rubber to book the teamβs return to the finals in November. Stosur conceded it was highly unlikely Hunter would be back in time should the team advance.
βItβs emotionally very hard at this point in time but credit to her she came out today,β she said. βShe still wanted to be there and support her team.
βSheβll do that, put that aside and do what she can now to help us through these couple of days but yeah, I think Dash touched on it out on the court β weβre going to try and rally around her as much as we can. We want her back out here, she deserves to be out here competing and playing and itβs just a horrible thing for her to have to go through.β
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Tennis.com.au – Tennis Australiaβ¦