Antalya to host BNP Paribas World Team Cup Qualification
The BNP Paribas World Team Cup Qualification Event takes place in Antalya, Turkey on 17-21 March, with teams from across Africa, Asia, Americas and Europe bidding to win one of four men's, four women's and two quad qualification spots to the BNP Paribas World Team Cup event - the wheelchair equivalent of Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup - in Portugal on 2-8 May 2022.
The Qualification event, previously held as four individual regional qualification events prior to the pandemic, will take place as an all-in-one qualification competition for the second year running.
The seeding for the qualification event will be based on the rankings as at Monday 14 March.
Men’s teams to look out for include Great Britain, who will contest the qualification event for the first time after being unable to contest the 2021 World Team Cup due to a combination of injury and illness.
That means that new world No. 1 and 15-time Grand Slam champion Alfie Hewett will be among the players in action at the Megasaray Tennis Academy, having previously been a part of the Great Britain team that won the World Team Cup men’s title for the first time in Turkey in 2015.
Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa are all former winners of either or both of the men’s and women’s draws at the World Team Cup African Qualification Event and hope to be in Antalya this year in a bid to try and repeat past successes.
Host nation Turkey are among a handful of teams set to contest each of the men’s, women’s and quad draws in Antalya this year.
Turkey were drawn against the might of the Netherlands in their round-robin quad draw at the World Team Cup Qualification Event in 2021, Ugur Altinel and Fatih Karatas ultimately finishing third of five nations. However, Turkey were subsequently awarded a place among the eight nations that contested the 2021 World Group in Sardinia, where Turkey played in the quad event for the first time.
Turkey’s quad team will hope that the experience gained in 2021 will be invaluable as they attempt to earn a return to the World Group, but among the teams they will need to contend with are four-time World Team Cup quad champions Israel. Israel’s team includes a wealth of talent, including former world No. 1 players and Paralympic medallists Noam Gershony and Shraga Weinberg, Gershony having won the quad singles Paralympic gold medal in 2012.
Among the leading contenders in the women’s draw will be Argentina, France and Thailand.
France were the third seeds for the Qualification Event in 2021 but fell to an early loss to an inspired team performance from Germany.
This year the French team will attempt to earn qualification once again, with a trio of players that includes Pauline Deroulede, Emmanuelle Morch and Charlotte Fairbank. Deroulede will arrive in Antalya buoyed by her run to the semi-finals of last month’s Bolton Indoor ITF 2 tournament, where she earned a straight sets win over world No. 3 Aniek van Koot in the quarter-finals.