This week Priscilla Hon has made her top-100 debut, and joined The Sit-Down podcast to provide some insights on how she got there after a decade on tour.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 7 October 2025 | Matt Trollope
In June, Priscilla Hon led Viktoriya Tomova 7-5 3-0 in the first round of Berlin qualifying, before losing. That result profoundly impacted how she approached subsequent matches in a transformational season.
“I was kind of stuck in the big points. Like, do I play safe, and wait until they miss?” Hon recalled on this week’s episode of The Sit-Down podcast. “It’s such a thin line, where you commit to it and go after it, but there’s a higher risk of missing.
“What I learned from that match was I need to stop playing so safe. So that’s what helped me qualify at Wimbledon.”
PODCAST: Listen to Priscilla Hon on The Sit-Down
Less than two weeks later, Hon progressed to the final round of Wimbledon qualifying, faced Canadian phenom Victoria Mboko, stared down five match points, and ultimately won, moving into the main draw at SW19 for the first time at age 27.
“[On] those match points, I just went after it, I kept playing how I would play any other point,” she explained. “I just kept moving forward, I kept being aggressive on those points, and it paid off.”
Since that Berlin loss, Hon has built a 13-6 record, also qualifying at the US Open and advancing to the third round – her best result at a major – then winning her first matches at WTA 1000 level in Beijing, where she came within a set of the fourth round against Belinda Bencic.
This big-stage success has helped the Queenslander make her top-100 debut in what she described as an “up-and-down journey”.
New mindset, better game, top 100 💯
Aussie Priscilla Hon joins The Sit-Down to chat about her best season to date 🔥 https://t.co/Jdq8pJfQdh pic.twitter.com/7AsCDOarC4
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) October 6, 2025
“I mean, it’s huge,” Hon said of her ranking milestone. “Finally being able to achieve it after so many years of playing, and it’s always that benchmark that everybody is trying to make, and finally being able to do it, yeah, it’s very satisfying.
“There’s obviously people that have always believed in me, thinking I can do way more, and I feel like I’m finally starting to live up to that. And also a lot of people that doubted me, so being able to prove them wrong, as well, is just the best feeling.”
Hon’s talent was obvious 10 years ago she won her first professional title at the ITF 15K event in Mornington. After finishing 2016 at world No.535, she improved her year-end ranking each year and finished 2019 at No.123, a season during which she made her Billie Jean King Cup debut for Australia and won her first Grand Slam main-draw match at Roland Garros.
She continued trending upward and reached the second round at Australian Open 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
During the shutdown she suffered a hip injury that sidelined her for more than a year, and was hospitalised during the 2023 off-season with appendicitis. She was also forced to contend with the death of her long-time coach Anthony Richardson, whom she described as “a second dad to me growing up”.
“That’s the thing about tennis – it’s a long journey. You start from such a young age and there’s always setbacks, and every single player has them,” she said.
“The one thing you really learn is to never give up. There’s always doubts. There’s a lot of negative thoughts in general in life. But I feel like in sport you have to keep backing yourself and keep moving forward, because if you don’t, then your career is over.
“I’m 1759822811 playing way more aggressive, and I feel like I did that a few years ago, where I was going up, and then COVID and everything and then I feel like I really lost my way. I started playing so defensive and I wasn’t happy with the way I was playing, at all.
“I feel like I’ve unlocked a little new part of my brain.”
Hon has won 37 singles matches in 2025. There have been seasons during which she’s won more – in 2022, she notched 45 – but it’s the nature of the wins, and the level at which they’ve been achieved, that sets this year apart.
At the same time she has drawn inspiration from her tennis-playing friends. Fellow Queenslander Kimberly Birrell’s ascent into the top 100 in January, Amanda Anisimova’s run to the Wimbledon final in July – which she watched from Anisimova’s entourage on Centre Court – and Karolina Muchova’s quarterfinal campaign in New York were all moments Hon said boosted her own belief.
And since proving to herself she could match her tennis-playing talent with week-to-week consistency, Hon hasn’t looked back.
“The amount of times I’ve heard people say ‘oh you’re talented and you’re ranked way lower than you should be’, and I’m like, ‘yeah I know’, but also I see my results, the way I’m playing and feeling, and I’m like, ‘yeah, I’m not consistent’. And I kept seeing that, so it was really hard to believe in myself,” admitted Hon, who this time last year was ranked outside the top 200.
“I’ve been working a lot on the mental side of things and just trying to keep it way more present. I feel like now that I have been able to play a bunch of matches, kept my level, [I’m] really happy with and confident in the way I am playing.
“That’s kind of what I mean by ‘unlocked’, because I feel I’ve shown myself that I can do this. And so now I feel like… I’m really excited to see where I can go.”
