MICHELLE Hill is officially the world's number one doubles player in her age group. Hill's ascent to the top of the world rankings follows a summer of sustained success where she won tournaments at state and national level, excelling in all three formats of competition; singles, doubles and mixed. Over the past few months the local star claimed the winner's title in singles, doubles and mixed at the Victorian Claycourt Championships in Melbourne and emulated that achievement in the Victorian Grasscourt Championships. Hill also claimed the singles and doubles titles at January’s Masters National Championships in Hobart, while most recently she won the doubles and mixed doubles at the Oceania Championships earlier this month. Hill said it’s exciting to reach number one. “I reached the number two singles player last year which was really exciting and I hadn’t really considered reaching number one in doubles,” Hill said. “Last year at the world championships we lost the doubles semi-final 10-7 in a tie-break and if we had won that match I would’ve reached number one then. “I won the Australian Championships in January and then played the Oceania Championships at Kooyong and won that and that got me the 1000 points which got me to number one. “The rankings can change every week depending on what happens overseas but it’s definitely exciting to reach number one.” Hill had a fantastic 2023 where she won 20 of her 24 doubles games and 24 of her 28 singles matches. “I had a big year last year, Peter and I travelled to Europe and I played a few tournaments over there and then I came back and played tournaments over here,” Hill said. “Over here I played in the Victorian Grasscourt Championships, Victorian Hardcourt Championships, Australian Hardcourt Championships and Oceania Championships so I try and play all of the tournaments in Australia.” Hill’s attention is now firmly on the Masters World Championships in Mexico where she will be captain of the Australian team in her age group. Hill will be playing in the teams event week one followed by the individual titles in week two and will be ranked highly in the doubles (1), singles (2) and mixed (4) events. “We’ve got a strong team this year and it would be great to win a medal,” Hill said. “Apart from the world championships Peter and I aren’t too sure if we’ll play anywhere else overseas yet. “I go up an age group next year so we’re deciding whether we go this year or just wait until next year.” Hill said the combination of playing tennis and travelling is a dream come true. “It’s just great, I get to play tennis and see the world at the same time – it’s the beauty of it,” she said. “There’s tournaments all over the world, you can go to Europe, South America, North America – there’s tournaments everywhere so we don’t tend to go back and play somewhere we’ve already been.” Hill thanked her usual doubles partner Wanda Howes and also her hitting partners for their help. “I’d like to thank my hitting partners for keeping me in form, I hit with my husband Peter and bit and have a weekly hit with Michael Rutledge who gives me plenty of good practice,” she said. “Also Phil Peck, Frank Harris and Barry Sullivan down at the Wangaratta Lawn Tennis Croquet and Pickleball Club, I play doubles with the, on a Thursday which is always great fun. “I’d also like to thank my regular doubles partner Wanda Howes, she’s from Melbourne and is the number two doubles player in the world and we’ll be playing together in Mexico.”
