LOUISE Hunt is looking to make the most of some home comforts as she competes in her first UK tournament of the year from tomorrow.

Wanborough ace Hunt kicked off her 2016 programme at three events in Australia in January but a vastly different environment now awaits at the North West Challenge in Preston, which concludes on Sunday.

That is the first of back-to-back competitions in Lancashire, with Hunt also in action at the USN Bolton Arena event next week.

The London 2012 Paralympian, 24, reached the singles and doubles finals at both last year and said: “These are some of my favourite tournaments of the year and I’m really looking forward to playing in them.

“It’s obviously amazing to be able to travel to Australia and play and there is going to be a bit of a temperature difference this week but it’s nice to be able to travel to a tournament close by.

“When you are on a plane for 25 hours it’s a massive strain on your body and it does take a bit of time to get right, so I’m looking for to just having a couple of hours in a car to get there.”

Hunt finished her Australian adventure with a trophy, winning the doubles title at the Melbourne Wheelchair Tennis Open alongside new partner Kgothatso Montjane and hopes to team up with the South African again in the future.

“It was really nice to win the last tournament. It was good to end on a positive note,” said Hunt, whose best singles performance Down Under was reaching the quarter-final of the Queensland Wheelchair Tennis Open in Brisbane.

“There were some good things to take from every tournament but there are some tough draws out there with the players that were there, so to get a win at the end of it all it was really nice.

“We'd only played once before, which was years ago, but we are really good friends. We complemented each other really well. I hope it’s something we can do again but there are lots of things that it’s dependent on, like whether we are at the same tournament or not and who is in the draw. I’d definitely want to team up again if we can.”