Wanborough's Louise Hunt won her second NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour title in a week on Wednesday after partnering fellow Brit Jordanne Whiley to win the women's doubles at the Melbourne Open.
Third seeds Hunt and Whiley defeated Japanese top seeds Yui Kamiji and Yuko Okabe 6-2, 3-6, (10-6) in a deciding champions tie-break to follow up their doubles victory at last week’s Adelaide Open.
In last Friday's Adelaide final Hunt and Whiley, who were then second seeds, defeated top seeds Katharina Kruger of Germany and Kgothatso Montjane of South Africa in another third and deciding set champions tie-break. With Kruger and Montjane going into this week’s tournament second seeds, the British duo edged out the same higher ranked opponents again in Tuesday's Melbourne semi-final.
Hunt and Whiley have now won two doubles titles and reached one semi-final in the three tournaments so far this year in Australia , narrowly missing out on a place in the final at the Brisbane Open in the first week of January. British No. 3 Hunt, who lost out to close friend Whiley in the women's singles earlier this week in Melbourne, has also reached two singles quarter-finals so far this year.
“I’m so excited about winning back-to-back doubles titles in what is my first ever trip to Australia and I’m now just one place away from equalling my career best doubles ranking,” said University of Bath student Hunt, who now joins a host of other British players at the Sydney International Open, the first Super Series tournament of the season, which begins on Friday.
“It’s a great start to 2012 and I’m very excited for Sydney later this week, where I aim to be playing some more great tennis. I’m loving the atmosphere at the Aussie tournaments and it really feels like the past two months of hard training back home has paid off.”