Hunt equals best world ranking
University of Bath student Louise Hunt goes into her final wheelchair tennis tournament of the season this week in Nottingham on the crest of a wave after winning her fourth title in two weeks on Saturday in Greece.
A week after winning singles and doubles titles at the Esporta Cardiff tournament, Hunt repeated the feat at the Sitia Open in Greece and has subsequently equalled her career best women’s singles world ranking, moving up one place since last week to number 18.
Top seed Hunt eased into the singles final in Crete, dropping just three games in her earlier matches against Switzerland’s Parmila Grangier and Ebru Bulgurcu of Turkey to set up a clash with German second seed Bianca Osterer. All three of Hunt’s previous matches against Osterer had gone to three sets, with the German having the edge in head-to-heads, but Hunt levelled the series up after coming from 5-2 down in a second set tie-break to prevail 6-4, 7-6(5) and clinch her second ITF 3 Series title of the year.
Hunt, a Sports Performance student and British number three, paired up with Osterer for the women’s doubles, the duo making the final with few problems before another dominant performance saw them lift the title after a 6-0, 6-1 win over Swiss second seeds Grangier and Annabelle Ribeaud.
“I’m very excited about my new ranking, it’s good to be back up there again after reaching number 18 for the first time in April last year,” said Hunt, who brings the curtain down on her 2011 season at the ITF 2 Series Nottingham Indoor, which gets underway today (Wednesday).
“It was the best score I’ve ever beaten Parmila by and the first time I’ve beaten Bianca in straight sets, so it was a great way to complete four back-to-back titles in two weeks.”
The University of Bath is The Sunday Times ‘University of the Year’ 2011/2012.
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