Teenage Australian Storm Sanders turned her first main draw match on the WTA tour into one to remember with a 6-2 6-2 mauling of China’s Peng Shuai at the Hobart International.
Ranked 195 places below Peng, who played the final in Shenzhen just two days ago, wildcard Sanders advanced to the second round in emphatic fashion.
“I watched her final on Fox Sports on Sunday,” the Perth-based 19-year-old said.
“So I kind of went out there and knew how I was going to play her.”
“I just had to really believe in myself, which I did.”
Sanders bettered her ranking by close to 500 points in 2013, despite three months out with an ankle injury, after finishing the previous year at No.721.
Currently No.234, she’s hoping for an Australian Open wildcard if her Hobart progress clashes with qualifying for the grand slam event.
Appropriately for someone with her unusual first name, she tamed the Hobart winds on Tuesday, but that’s where the storm analogies end.
“In the Courtney novels by Wilbur Smith, there’s a character called Storm Courtney and my parents named me after that,” she said.
“So no crazy story about the weather or anything like that.”
Sanders roomed with Ashleigh Barty for two years in Melbourne and received a text from the rising star congratulating her soon after her match on Tuesday.
She will play second seed and Wimbledon semi-finalist Kirsten Flipkens in the second round.
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