Storm Hunter’s secret sauce is kept close to home

January 22, 2026 — 5:00am

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It wasn’t long ago that Storm Hunter was staring down the barrel of a long rehabilitation process, after she ruptured her Achilles tendon during a Brisbane training session in early 2024.

But this week she was back at the Australian Open, notching a first round win over Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, only to be knocked out of the tournament by American Hailey Baptiste on Wednesday afternoon. Still, the Australian’s comeback has been one of this year’s early Open highlights.

After sealing her place in the second round, the 31-year-old opened up about some of the things that helped her through those tougher months. Among them: her book club – and her husband’s culinary finesse.

Her husband, Loughlin Hunter, (a professional chef, no less) left his job to travel with Storm, and has been on the tools throughout her road to recovery. Her secret sauce? “I’ve been requesting a chicken pesto pasta. So pretty, you know, basic – but he does a good job,” the player said in a post-match interview with our Age colleague Sam McClure.

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“Before I did my Achilles, he started travelling with me. We just found life on tour’s a lot – I wouldn’t get home that often, and he’d be working here in Melbourne. And we were kind of lucky that we … were in a position where he could quit his job and start travelling with me, which, for the first year, was great.

“But then I did my Achilles. We were obviously here [at] home rehabbing. He had to drive me everywhere; I couldn’t drive for about four months. So he was there every step of the way, just helping me stay positive and cooking really nice meals.”

Linen crotch whiskers and leather pants

For years, the anonymous style critic Fashion Critical has delivered scathing reviews of fashion events to a cult online following.

She coined trademark phrases such as “shoulda caught the bus”, for when a celebrity’s clothing was creased from sitting down in a limousine to an event, and “toessssss”, for when awkward toes protruded from designer shoes.

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Newly minted as the Australian Open’s first fashion editor at large, Fashion Critical has been prowling the tournament perusing the outfits.

Fashion has taken to centre court at the Open with Naomi Osaka’s jellyfish-inspired ensemble, but while Fashion Critical is prepared to weigh in on the players, she’s playing it nice when it comes to tennis fans. She dubbed Osaka’s outfit “completely unhinged”, but she loved it.

Attending Tennis Australia’s exclusive “O” enclosure, Fashion Critical had only praise for attendees’ attire including Kerri-Anne Kennerley‘s “brilliant” Camilla pants set in printed blues and Ariarne Titmus’ “fab” Sir mini-dress.

The only negative response we could eke out of Fashion Critical was an arched eyebrow over swimming singer Cody Simpson’s decision to wear leather trousers to the tennis on a 29-degree day.

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“I thought that was a choice,” she said. “That was a choice both culturally, because we just don’t see a lot of leather pants at the tennis, and also weather-wise.”

Could it be possible that being on the payroll of the tournament has softened Fashion Critical’s approach?

“One of my rules has always been that I will only, when I do a red carpet album, that I only feature celebrities, and these are the people that have stylists and have style teams behind them, and all of the effort that goes into putting that look together,” she said. “I don’t do it with regular people because I just don’t think that it’s the same playing field.”

Fashion Critical said that even though most tennis fans would have come on public transport, the “crotch whiskers” that are often the result of not heeding her advice on “shoulda caught the bus” were unavoidable given the amount of sitting down at the Open and the popularity of linen.

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“It’s breathable, it’s light, but nothing on the planet creases more than linen,” she said. “So I would say that in this particular instance, the crotch whiskers violation will not be issued unless you are attending an event with a media wall, in which case you must place the item on your person as close as possible to the time of the photo op.”

Now that Fashion Critical has attained her own celebrity status she has found the tables have turned, and she is the subject of media photographers looking closely for a “shoulda caught the bus” or “toesssss” moment.

“The level of scrutiny that I face in the toe region is intense,” she said. “I’m not going to lie, I did rearrange my toes for a photo the other day, just to make sure that no one can come at me, because they’re going to be looking and rightly so.”

Not even critics are perfect.

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Daicos and Dalins get to work

In the early stages of this year’s Australian Open, the Melebrities sauntering from one sponsored event to the next are already beginning to blur into one.

Before the nation’s powerbrokers and politicians begin to trickle in to catch the latter stages of the tournament, we’re left to thumb through galleries of local Instagram influencers and footballers enjoying the spoils of all the Open’s corporate hospitality has to offer.

Last year, comedian Joel Creasey emerged among the tournament’s most familiar faces, due in no small part to his hosting duties at Squealing Pig’s wine bar. But this year one couple is making an early run at dethroning him.

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Enter Collingwood’s Josh Daicos, and his fiancee, Annalise Dalins. As readers of this column would already be aware, the pair were spotted lining up for vaunted on-court seats on Sunday (along with Josh’s brother, Nick). But it looks like the town’s publicists have already sunk their claws into the couple, because we hear they have been busy working the ground in the days since.

We were dutifully informed that Daicos and Dalins were among a crop of “celebrity talent” and “tastemakers” – some of whom we must admit we’d never heard of – to drop by the Grey Goose courtside bar on Tuesday.

Of course, it bears noting that Daicos (Josh, to be clear) has his own arrangement with Grey Goose, which is no secret given the sponsored post he blasted out to his followers on Instagram earlier this month.

Among the others to drop by were Nadia Bartel, an influencer and co-founder of the clothing brand Henne, along with Australian wheelchair tennis legend Dylan Alcott, reality TV and media personality Tully Smyth, and Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell of Flight Facilities.

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Stephen Brook is a special correspondent for The Age and CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously deputy editor of The Sunday Age. He is a former media editor of The Australian and spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via Twitter or email.

John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.

Cara Waters is the city editor for The Age.Connect via Twitter, Facebook or email.

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