Louise Hunt is excited to be returning to this weekend’s National Paralympic Day and an upcoming visit to the United States after winning her sixth women’s doubles wheelchair tennis title of 2014 over the weekend in Flanders to complete a successful two weeks in Belgium.
Wanborough’s British No. 3 has partnered Spain’s Lola Ochoa and Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands to back-to-back doubles titles at the Ath Open and the Flanders 25 in Aalst to take her career tally of doubles titles to 38.
Hunt narrowly missed out on winning both the women’s singles and doubles titles at the Ath Open after slipping to a 6-4, 5-7, 2-6 loss in the singles final to die De Groot of the Netherlands. However, having beaten Ochoa in the singles semi-finals she partnered the Spanish No. 1 to defeat de Groot and Belgium’s El Verhoeven 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles final.
Hunt made the most of another opportunity to avenge her Ath Open result against de Groot last week after the two players were drawn together in the first round in Flanders and Wiltshire’s London 2012 Paralympian eased to a 6-4, 6-1 victory before going on to reach the semi-finals and her first ever singles match against Walraven, which the Dutch world No. 7 edged 7-5, 6-4.Together, Hunt and Walraven also justified top seeding in the women’s doubles, defeating de Groot and Ochoa 6-1, 6-4 in the title decider.
“I’m continually learning from the likes of Sharon, whose very experienced and has been in the top 10 for a long time,” said 23-year-old Hunt. “I feel like I’ve played some of my best tennis over the last two weeks and although the first week in Ath was frustrating, with long days and endless rain delays, and I was frustrated to lose to Diede, I was so glad to get her first round last week. It gave me the chance to put the final in Ath behind me and I showed I’m playing well by getting so close to Sharon.”
“I’m having a really good season, especially in doubles, and I feel like a sponge, I’m soaking as much as I can from playing with Sharon and Lola, both of whom I’ve now won two titles with this season. There are different roles on court, depending on which one you’re playing with, but we complement each other well.”
Hunt will now return to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday as she joins the Tennis Foundation and British Paralympic Association for the second successive year to promote wheelchair tennis at National Paralympic Day. Then next week she’s off to New York for the final four days of the US Open.
“National Paralympic day is such fun and I love showcasing wheelchair tennis and helping others to try and get into a sport that’s given me so much success and enjoyment,” said Hunt. “The end-of year NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters is also being held in the Olympic Park in November and tickets go on sale on Saturday, so it’s going to be a big day and an exciting day.
“I’m then going to the US Open as a player guest ahead of my next tournament in a couple of weeks in South Carolina. To have the opportunity to sample the environment is very exciting and I’ll able to practice with some of the top 10 players, which will be ideal before the PTR Championships in Hilton Head.”