Wanborough’s Louise Hunt lifted her first title of 2014 after winning the women’s doubles final at the IFT 2 Series Desert Classic in Arizona at the weekend.

Hunt, who is in good form after reaching both finals at the North West Challenge in Preston last month, also finished as runner-up in the singles final in Arizona.

Hunt’s performance in Preston had earned her a ranking improvement of one place to 19th, a position she still occupied heading into the Desert Classic, where she faced round-robin competitions in both the singles and doubles.

The British number three made a confident start to her singles campaign after beating Denmark’s Louise Willerselev-Olsen 6-2, 6-1 and Japan’s Miho Nijo 6-4, 6-2.

She then defeated American Dana Mathewson 6-4, 6-1, but a narrow 6-4, 6-3 loss to top seed Katharina Kruger in her penultimate match meant that Hunt finished runner-up to the German, who completed the tournament unbeaten.

Hunt and Kruger were also undefeated in the women’s doubles, collecting the title after a final 6-1, 6-1 win over Nijo and Willerslev-Olsen.

“It’s a great way to start my American tournaments and I’m pretty happy with my singles, too, after getting close to Katharina again,” said Hunt, who had pushed the German hard at the end of February when Kruger edged to a 7-6 (8), 6-4 win in the quarter-finals of the Jura Indoors in Switzerland.

“I’ve beaten the world number 13 this season and had two close matches against the world number 10.

“In four tournaments the only players that I’ve lost to are world top 10 players that have gone on to win those tournaments, so I’m confident I’m in good form and I’m really looking forward to moving on to Baton Rouge now.”

Hunt is one of several Brits on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme now set to contest this week’s ITF 1 Series Cajun Classic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.