All-time great Justine Henin has saluted Storm Hunter's fabulous run at the Australian Open, hailing her late blooming on the tennis court as a shining example to all aspiring young players.
After the 29-year-old Rockhampton battler's drive through qualifying into the third round at Melbourne Park was finally ended by the big-match nous of Barbora Krejcikova on Friday night, the seven-time grand slam champ Henin hailed Hunter's adventure as "a beautiful story".
And the Belgian ace believes the try-try-and-try-again Hunter can use the boost of her Open breakthrough to now make a concerted push towards the game's top-50.
Pangs of regret over her 4-6 7-5 6-3 near-miss against Former Roland Garros champ Krejcikova still couldn't wipe the broad smile from the face of the popular Queenslander as she fielded questions over the clamour for her to concentrate her energies on singles now she's conquered doubles as the world No.1.
Hunter conceded she would one day soon have a decision to make in that area, but for the moment, believes she can still juggle both disciplines, with the prospect that, now at a projected 127 in the live world rankings, she'll soon be surpassing her career-best placing of 119.
But Henin, the 2004 Australian Open champ, is not alone in believing Hunter could go far beyond that after showing real resilience down the years to overcome injury woes and reach the point where she looks like the best women's player in Australia.
"I was really impressed about the passion of Hunter that she brought into that match," said Henin, on Eurosport.
"It's just a beautiful story. She's now playing every main draw at a grand slam at 29 years old and is number one in the world at doubles, and you can feel in her the passion and the resilience that she has had in her career.
"It's just an example for all young players who want to win so fast and want to be there so quickly. She took some time to get there - and it's really well deserved what she's doing today.
"She's had to stop a little bit in singles in the past with injuries, but maybe here with the emotions and confidence she can get from this tournament, and the level she could play, she can take that with her.
"And it's going to, of course, help her this season. We hope to see her at that level again soon."
First, there's the little matter of two doubles titles for Hunter shoot for - with Katerina Siniakova - ironically, Krejcikova's old Czech Olympic-winning doubles partner - in the women's, and Matt Ebden in the mixed.
But more than her own progress, Hunter's interested in just boosting the profile of the domestic women's game in the post-Ash Barty era.
"I would say there's definitely been a bit more attention on me, which is fine. I don't say I love it, but I'm happy with how everything is for me now. It's been really nice to have, I guess, everyone excited about women's tennis in Australia," said Hunter.
"That's probably the biggest thing. It can be easy to be negative about it, but it was nice we could just have a little bit of positivity.
"Ajla (Tomljanovic) played really well as well and was unlucky against (Jelena) Ostapenko. We've got Dascha (Saville) who's on the way coming back from injury. We had a few younger girls in qualifying too.
"So, to me, that's more important than myself - the growth of women's tennis in Australia."
