8 teams, 7 nations progress from BNP Paribas World Team Cup qualifiers
Chile’s quad team of Francisco Cayulef and Diego Perez beat Australia’s Finn Broadbent and Heath Davidson 10-6 earlier today in Pattaya, Thailand as a deciding match tie-break in a deciding doubles match fittingly brought the curtain down on and enthralling six-day triple-header of BNP Paribas World Team Cup regional qualifications.
Eight teams from seven different nations progressed to May’s BNP Paribas Team Cup World Group in Antalya, with Cayulef and Perez’s 2-1 victory over third seeds Australia resulting in Chile becoming the only nation across the Americas Qualification, the Asian Qualification and the European Qualification to have two teams advance through qualification to the World Group.
South Africa’s men’s and women’s had both also previously progressed from the African Qualification.
Chile’s men’s team were also victorious at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup Americas Qualification in Lima, Peru as five of the top-seeded nations across three men’s events, three women’s events and two quad events booked their places in Antalya, Turkey on 7-12 May.
BNP Paribas World Team Cup Asian Qualification
Twelve months on from losing out to host nation Thailand in the final of the combined Asia-Oceania-Americas quad qualification draw, Chile advance to the quad World Group of elite nations for the first time after beating Australia 2-1 – the Australian team having beaten Thailand 2-1 in the semi-finals to deny a repeat of the 2023 final
“It was a difficult qualifier due to the very good level between the Americas, Oceania and Asia teams,” said Chilean No.1 Francisco Cayulef. “Fortunately, we were able to win the final against a great team. We are very happy because for the first time Chile will play a World Team Cup (World Group) in the quad category.”
While Thailand missed out on a place in both quad final and the men’s finals after semi-final losses, there was better news for the host nation after a four-way round-robin contest in the women’s event.
Second seeds Thailand beat top seeds Korea Republic 2-0 after the two singles rubbers in the deciding match – which included Sakhorn Khanthasit’s 6-3, 7-5 victory over Ju-Youn Park, 11 years after the former world No. 6 and former world No. 7 first met in World Team Cup competition.
The men’s event in Pattaya resulted in a comfortable victory for top seeds China, P.R., who beat Malaysia 2-0 in Monday’s final to remain unbeaten in 10 matches across five days.
BNP Paribas World Team Cup Americas Qualification
With Chile’s quad team having made the journey to Thailand for their qualification event, closer to home Chile’s men’s team also justified their top seeding at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup Americas Qualification.
World N0. 13 Alexander Cataldo, Brayan Tapia and Jaime Sepulveda remained unbeaten throughout their five days in Lima, Peru and defeated second seeds Colombia 2-0 in the men’s final.
However, the fortunes of the two nations were reversed in the women’s draw as world No. 10 Angelica Bernal returned to represent Colombia after missing the 2023 World Team Cup due to injury.
Colombia’s women’s team earned 3-0 wins over Chile, Canada, Ecuador and Peru to qualify for the 2024 BNP Paibas World Group in May.
BNP Paribas World Team Cup European Qualification
A wealth of Grand Slam champions and Paralympic medallists were nominated for their respective teams for the BNP Paribas World Team Cup European Qualification as Latvia hosted the regional event for the first time.
However, the only one of the stars on show to leave Latvia with another winners’ medal was Andy Lapthorne as the world No. 7 helped top seeds Great Britain to 10 match wins and a return to the quad World Group after beating Germany 2-0 in their final.
Elsewhere, Stefan Olsson played a major part in Sweden progress to the men’s final, but the former world No. 2 was unavailable for the decider against third seeds Germany and the two-man team of Anthony Dittmar and Christophe Wilke earned Germany’s return to the men’s World Group with a 2-0 victory, having also beaten tops seeds Austria by the same score in the semi-finals.
The women’s final produced a similar scenario to the quad final as the top seeds beat the third seess, Switzerland defeating Austria 2-0.