This time last year Storm Sanders was working at the Australian Open. Now she is among a group of Emageo Group stars set to play doubles at the Melbourne Park grand slam on Wednesday.
After clocking up an impressive 15-4 winning record since returning to singles a few months ago, Sanders fell just short of a place in the main singles draw.
But as an accomplished doubles player, Sanders will be hoping to have an impact in the women’s doubles draw after being handed a wildcard.
Sanders and Priscilla Hon, who played together at the Brisbane International earlier this month, will have a showdown with American pair Asia Muhammad and Sabrina Santamaria on Wednesday afternoon. The Australian pair have been scheduled fourth on court 15.
How much her fortunes have changed in a short space of time is not lost on Sanders.
“It’s kind of funny, because I worked for the AO last year doing match analysis and coding,” Sanders told the New Daily. “I needed to earn some money, and I wanted to do something while I was injured.
“I enjoyed doing the stats and it kind of helped me, as well, in not thinking just about myself on court, but what I’m trying to do to my opponent and the best way to construct and win the point.
“I ran into the match analysis team (recently and they asked ‘do you want to do some coding?’ But it’s fine. I’m done with that for now.”
Maddy Inglis also opens her women’s doubles campaign on Wednesday. Inglis and Kaylah McPhee will be up against Yang Zhaoxuan (China) and Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukraine) second on court 12.
Matt Ebden will also take the court alongside fellow Australian Alex Bolt third on court 5. The pair will are set to face Argentinian Andres Molteni and Hugo Nys of Monaco.
No.7 seeds John Peers and Michael Venus take on Frederik Nielsen (Denmark) and Tim Putz (Germany) as the fourth match scheduled on court 22 in their first grand slam as a new pairing.
Andrew Harris, who made his main draw singles debut on Monday, will be back on court on Thursday.
Harris and Chris O’Connell will take on Marc Polmans and James Duckworth in an all-Australian affair.