Brazil upset the odds to provide an uncomfortable start to Japan’s bid for back-to-back quad titles on the opening day of the 2021 BNP Paribas World Team Cup as Ymanitu Silva and Leandro Pena beat the 2019 champions 2-1 at the Baia di Conte Resort in Alghero, Sardinia.

On a day when 14 round-robin contests were decided, Silva laid the foundation for Brazil's victory with his first career singles win over world No. 5 Koji Sugeno in seven attempts.

The 38-year-old’s 6-2 6-3 victory not only cancelled out Shota Kawano’s win over Pena in the first singles match, but also provided the momentum for the Brazilian duo to go on and win the doubles against the third seeds 6-4 6-3.

Brazil completed the first day’s play joint top of Pool 2 with nine-time World Team Cup quad champions USA, who beat Canada 3-0.

Meanwhile, Netherlands and Great Britain claimed the opening contests in Pool 1 as Britain set out to try and make it back-to-back quad titles in Sardinia, having triumphed in Alghero in 2017.

In beating Turkey 2-1, the Brits ended Turkey’s hopes of making a winning debut in the quad event as James Shaw and Greg Slade saved set points against Ugur Altinel and Fatih Karatas and reeled off five games in a row to win their deciding doubles contest 6-2 7-5.

Spain hold on to beat Chile as men’s event begins

Three of the six men’s round-robin contests completed on the first day ended in 2-1 scorelines, including Spain’s match up with Chile as second seeds Spain eventually came from 1-0 down to produce a convincing doubles victory.

When Brayan Tapia took the opening singles rubber for Chile, defeating Enrique Siscar Meseguer, a player ranked some 30 places above him, the ultimate outcome was maybe in question. However, there were few signs of any panic in the Spanish camp as Martin de la Puente and Francisco Garcia Vena combined to drop just two games in each of the next two matches in their Pool 2 contest.

The other Pool 2 contest saw USA upset the seeding to defeat Israel as Conner Stroud and Casey Ratzlaff maintained their unbeaten singles records against Guy Sasson and Adam Berdichevsky, respectively, to secure the tie before Israel took the doubles.

It was a tremendous day for Brazil, whose teams were victorious in each of the quad, men’s and women’s events, with Gustavo Carneiro Silva and Daniel Rodrigues combining to beat Belgium 2-1 in Pool 4 of the men’s event. 

France joined Brazil in earning an early win in Pool 4 after the fourth seeds eased past Sr Lanka 3-0, while top seeds Netherlands and third seeds Argentina in winning their respective Pool 1 and Pool 3 contests against Poland and Argentina by the same score.

Colombia upset women’s seeding to beat France

Colombia started this year’s World Team Cup seeded tenth for the women’s event, but that was not about to deter Angelica Bernal and Johana Martinez in a fascinating contest against France that started with Pauline Deroulede making a slow start against Martinez.

However, unbeaten in her two singles matches at the World Team Cup Qualification Event in Portugal in May, the Frenchwoman soon turned her fortunes around on her World Group debut to eventually defeat Martinez 1-6 6-2 6-0 before world No. 12 Bernal dropped just two games against Charlotte Fairbank to force the Pool 4 contest to the deciding doubles match.

What followed was a contest that typifies the drama of World Team Cup competition as Bernal and Martinez etched out a hard-fought doubles victory that ended 11-9 in the match tie-break to leave Colombia in good heart ahead of their next contest against fourth seeds USA.

Not to be outdone by their teammates in the quad and men’s events, Brazil’s women’s team also earned a 2-1 win in their opening round-robin Pool 2 match-up against South Africa. It was a contest that Mariska Venter ensured would be decided in the doubles after she battled to a 2-6 6-3 6-4 victory over Meirycoll Duval, but Maria Alves and Duval rarely looked in trouble as they combined to win the decider 6-1 6-1 ahead of meeting Japan next.

Germany’s 2021 World Team Cup journey took another step forward as Katharina Kruger and Britta Wend combined to win their Pool 3 tie for loss of just three games in Kruger’s singles match against Mexico, while the Russian Tennis Federation were almost as dominant in beating Turkey 3-0 ahead of their Pool 1 meeting with top seeds Netherlands.

All four women’s top seeds make their debuts in Sardinia on Tuesday’s second day of competition, which also sees the start of the junior event.  

For regular updates to the daily match results and draws at the 2021 BNP Paribas World Team Cup, visit the event website here.