Wanborough wheelchair tennis star Louise Hunt has been riding the crest of a wave again in North and South America, winning back-to-back doubles titles in the USA and Brazil and seeing her singles world ranking improve to a new career high of 12 this week.
Hunt partnered Germany’s Katharina Kruger to their third doubles title together at the PTR Wheelchair Championships on Hilton Head Island as the British No. 3 retained a title that she won in 2014 partnering American Emmy Kaiser.
Hunt and Kruger are now targeting next month’s UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters in California, an event where they upset the odds to finish runners-up in 2014, having lived up to their top seeding on Hilton Head to complete successive straight sets wins.
After bowing out of the women’s singles to Kaiser in the semi-finals in South Carolina, Hunt moved on to Florianopois, Brazil, where she’s won the women’s doubles and finished runner-up in the women’s singles at Semana Guga Kuerten, the ITF 2 Series wheelchair tennis event that is part of former world No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten’s annual festival of tennis.
The Wiltshire Paralympian marked a new partnership with Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana to win the women’s doubles in Florianopolis after a 6-4 6-1 win over Brazilian second seeds Rejane Candida and Natalia Mayara in the final. A title double proved narrowly out of reach as Parapan American Games gold medallist Mayara edged the women’s singles final 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, but Hunt has still hit new heights in this week’s rankings moving up to world No.12.
“I can’t believe I’ve gone up to my career highest ranking this week! Honestly, it’s been in the back of my mind about improving my ranking and it was my objective at these two tournaments to move up a place. But after I lost in the final I thought it wouldn’t happen and didn’t think any more about it,” said Hunt.
“Losing a final in three sets is always a tough pill to swallow but I have no regrets about how I played. I played the best I could on that day and I gave 100 per cent, but she had a great day and she’s having a good year so it’s one of those things.
“I did well just to get to the singles final and then to finish off with the doubles title was awesome and it was a real pleasure to play with Macerana. We were really patient in the first set of the final and then the second set flew past and we played some great tennis,” added Hunt, who has now joined fellow Brits on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme at a ParalympicsGB simulation and training camp in Sao Paulo.
“I’m now really excited to be staying in Brazil, joining up with the rest of the GB players and simulating the environment we’ll be in next year at the Games, which is crucial for us to be best prepared.”
The players are visiting Sao Paulo and Rio as they work towards the second part of the qualification window for the Rio 2016 Games.