Alistair Hunt (born 11 November 1972) is a former professional
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player from New Zealand.
Biography
Hunt grew up in
Christchurch
Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
and was the top ranked junior in the country at under 18s level. As a junior he competed in the boys events at all four
Grand Slam tournaments. He made the doubles quarter-finals at both the
1989 Australian Open
The 1989 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Hardcourt, outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park, Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria (state), Victoria in Australia. It was the 77th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 ...
and
1990 French Open
The 1990 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 28 May until 10 June. It was the 89th staging of the French Open, and the second Gra ...
, partnering
Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...
in the latter.
On the ATP Tour he made most of his appearances at the
Auckland Open, where he first competed in 1996 and featured in each of the next three tournaments. His best finish was the second round in 1998, with a win over world number 53
Daniel Vacek
Daniel Vacek (born 1 April 1971) is a former tennis player from Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic who turned professional in 1990. He reached the quarterfinals of the 1995 Paris Masters, the 1998 Canada Masters and the 1998 Cincinnati M ...
. He played in the main draw of one international tournament, which was the 1997
Bournemouth International. Beaten in the first round of the singles, he made better success in the doubles event, making it to the semi-finals with partner
Brett Steven
Brett Andrew Steven (born 27 April 1969) is a former New Zealand tennis player.
Biography
Steven began his tennis career at the age of 10 as a ball boy and by the age of 16 he participated at his first tournament. He attended Mount Roskill ...
.
Hunt was a mainstay in the
New Zealand Davis Cup team from 1995 to 2003, with a further tie in 2006. This included a World Group qualifier against
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
in
Florianópolis
Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina, in the South Region, Brazil, South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as we ...
, where he played a singles rubber against
Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the list of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals f ...
. He played a total of 18 ties for New Zealand, for 19 overall wins, an 11/12 record in singles and 8/6 in doubles.
His best win in the
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
came against
Richard Krajicek
Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek (; born 6 December 1971) is a Dutch former professional tennis player and tournament director. Krajicek won 17 singles titles during his career, including the 1996 Wimbledon Championships, becoming the first (an ...
at a 1996 tie in
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...
, just three-months after the Dutchman had won
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
.
Hunt, ranked 294 at the time, took the first set in a tiebreak, but Krajicek recovered to win the next two.
Krajicek, who was playing his first match at home since winning Wimbledon, was struggling with a knee injury by the time the fourth set started and retired hurt with Hunt ahead 4–1.
Since 2013, Hunt has captained New Zealand in the Davis Cup.
See also
*
List of New Zealand Davis Cup team representatives
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Alistair
1972 births
Living people
New Zealand male tennis players
New Zealand tennis coaches
Sportspeople from Christchurch