WANBOROUGH wheelchair tennis ace Louise Hunt has been riding the crest of a wave in North and South America, winning back-to-back doubles titles and climbing to a career high singles world ranking.

Hunt and German partner Katharina Kruger bagged their third doubles title together at the PTR Wheelchair Championships on Hilton Head Island as the British number three retained a crown she won last year alongside 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 as runners-up in 2014.

After bowing out of the singles to Kaiser in the semi-finals in South Carolina, Hunt moved on to Florianopois, Brazil, where she won the doubles and finished runner-up in the singles at Semana Guga Kuerten.

The Wiltshire Paralympian marked a new partnership with Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana to win the doubles with a 6-4, 6-1 success over Brazilian second seeds Rejane Candida and Natalia Mayara.

A title double proved narrowly out of reach for Hunt, however, as Parapan American Games gold medallist Mayara edged the singles final 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Despite that disappointment, Hunt has the consolation of moving up to a career-best number 12 in the world rankings.

“I can’t believe I’ve gone up to my career highest ranking this week,” said Hunt.

“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.

“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.”

Hunt has now joined up with the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme at a ParalympicsGB simulation and training camp in Sao Paulo.

The players are visiting Sao Paulo and Rio as they work towards the second part of the qualification window for the Rio 2016 Games.

“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,” she added.