Despite being among the millions of Queenslanders anxiously awaiting the arrival of Cyclone Alfred, the return of a Storm far sunnier by nature has put a smile on the face of Ash Barty this week.

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Eleven months after her great mate Storm Hunter ruptured her Achilles tendon just as her star was ascending in tennis, the Aussie makes her comeback at Indian Wells.

The 30-year-old had peaked at No.1 in doubles and was on the verge of a top 100 singles breakthrough following some strong grand slam and Billie Jean King Cup results when she suffered the injury prior to a Fed Cup tie in Brisbane last April.

The devastating setback occurred just hours after Hunter, who sat courtside in Barty’s support box during her brilliant Wimbledon triumph in 2021, had caught up with the three-time major winner in Brisbane to meet her baby boy for the first time.

“I caught up with Storm the day before when she met Hayden for the first time and then she texted me the next morning and said she had done her Achilles,” Barty told foxsports.com.au.

“I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ It was pretty demoralising, knowing that it’s such a tough injury.”

Barty, who was this week among the global champions including her own idol Evonne Goolagong who were honoured with a Barbie made in their liking as part of an international campaign, kept in close contact with Hunter throughout her rehabilitation.

The champion, who will outline the champion Australian sportswomen who have inspired her over the past year in a feature for foxsports.com.au to be published ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, praised Hunter’s resilience.

Amid bedding down the family home in Brisbane ahead of the arrival of the cyclone on Thursday night, Barty said she was delighted the talented Hunter had made it back on court.

“It is relatively unknown in tennis when it comes to comebacks. But I’ve been chatting with Stormy throughout her rehab and, I mean, she’s the ultimate professional,” Barty said.

“She always has been. She was always going to cross every T and dot every I and she’s done that as best that she can and can now be rewarded with being back on court.

“First and foremost, you hope she stays healthy through these next few months, obviously with getting her body back right, but boy, it brought a smile to my face when I saw her jump on the plane. And I don’t think she’s ever been so excited to leave Australia in her life, to get over there and, you know, to enjoy the grind again.

“So I’m chuffed for her and obviously … she’s got such a good support network around her and I am absolutely pumped for her.”

Hunter, who will partner American Caroline Dolehide against Ekaterina Alexandrova and Liudmila Samsonova in the opening round of the prestigious tournament, is excited.

“Being here at Indian Wells, honestly it was a dream for me (to return here) after I had surgery,” she told the WTA website.

“My surgeon said it would be at least 12 months (until I could play again) and I said, ‘No’. Indian Wells, that was about 10 to 11 months and that was the goal and it is a bit of a celebration for me to be here this week.

“Coming back to play tennis, honestly, it felt like it was a huge mountain to climb. I didn’t, at times, feel like I could get back to it, to be honest, just with how I was feeling.

“I was struggling to walk ten metres and I was in a lot of pain and to be on court felt like it was really far away.”

The return of Hunter is not the only part of Indian Wells that Barty, who has been busy with several different interests since her retirement following her Australian Open success in 2022, is looking forward to keeping an eye on.

While Ajla Tomljanovic made back-to-back major quarterfinals following Barty’s retirement in 2022, and Hunter and Ellen Perez have enjoyed success in doubles, our best women endured a lean patch on the WTA Tour after the star’s exit.

But the past six months have been encouraging, with Olivia Gadecki, Kim Birrell and Maya Joint making inroads into the top 100 for the first time, while star junior Emerson Jones and veterans Tomljanovic and Daria Gaville have also enjoyed good results.

This continued at Indian Wells on Wednesday, with the 76th-ranked Birrell, Joint (85), Tomljanovic (94) and Maddison Inglis (136), another enjoying a strong run, all qualifying for an event considered the biggest outside the four grand slams.

“I feel like we’ve kind of always had a lot of those girls between 100 and 200 and they just hadn’t quite been able to break through. But we’ve seen that this year,” Barty said.

“Maya, obviously, just last week broke through and we have had that with Kimbo, Liv Gadecki, and Ajla is back. It is really nice to see. Success breeds success and I think it’s a healthy competition. All the girls genuinely want each other to do well, you know, and I think this is just the start.

“I think this year we’re going to have a few more of those girls break through and be in grand slam main draws and hopefully that will really propel their careers, so that come the Australian Open next year, we have a bunch in the main draw with good opportunities.”

Nick Kyrgios will return to Indian Wells for the first time since he was a quarterfinalist there in 2022 and will face Botic van de Zandschulp for the chance to play Novak Djokovic.

No.9 seed Alex de Minaur heads the nine Australian men in the main draw, with Li Tu and Adam Walton managing to qualify on Wednesday, while Jordan Thompson returns from injury.