The BNP Paribas World Team Cup was due to be held in Vilamoura, Portugal this week but because of the COVID-19 pandemic the event will not take place.

We want to take the opportunity this week to celebrate wheelchair tennis, which has grown from humble beginnings with a few hundred players competing in the United States in the early 1980s, to a professional tour played across the globe with some of the most recognisable Paralympians competing in the sport.

And one of the jewels in the crown for the UNIQLO wheelchair tennis tour is when the players compete for their country in the World Team Cup – wheelchair’s equivalent of Davis Cup and Fed Cup.

World Team Cup – a brief history

The World Team Cup was created in 1985 due to the growth of foreign participation in the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Irvine, California. It began more as a fun event that was used as a warm-up tournament the weekend before the US Open Super Series event. It was also felt that it would create international camaraderie and one day the tournament would stand on its own. Just six men’s teams competed in the inaugural event with women joining the competition with two teams the following year.

By 1991, the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships and the World Team Cup had grown beyond anyone’s expectations and having the events back to back was too much. It was hard on the tournament organisers and the top players and it was felt that the time had come to move to a new location and a different time of year.

Following discussions at the 1991 International Wheelchair Tennis Federation AGM, Belgium said that they would love to hold the event and in 1992 the World Team Cup moved outside the USA for the first time. In addition, the IWTF office had been established in London for one year and was able to offer support and assistance to new host nations, taking the huge organisational responsibility away from the NFWT.

Since then, 19 different countries have staged the event with more nations applying to stage it each year. Now the BNP Paribas World Team Cup is a massive standalone tournament with over 300 participants and around 150 additional guests and coaches each year.

The event has grown to include quad (which started in 1998) and junior (which began in 2000) draws and 2020 would have represented a 20^th nation hosting the event in the shape of Portugal.

Dominant Dutch

Over the course of its 35 years, the World Team Cup has seen one nation lift more titles than any other – in large part because the women’s team from Netherlands has proved almost invincible.

The Dutch have won an incredible 31 out of 34 possible titles in the women’s competition, with only USA (in 1994), Australia (in 1999) and China (in 2017) able to stop them.

The men’s titles have been more evenly spread: USA lead the way with 9 team triumphs but 7 of those came in the early years of the competition when it was hosted at Irvine. France have won 8 titles and Netherlands can lay claim to 6 victories. Australia, Japan, Great Britain, Sweden and Germany have also all won the men’s World Team Cup.

In the quad division it’s USA who have taken charge with 9 titles overall but the Americans haven’t tasted victory since 2015. Great Britain have 5 titles to their name and Israel have 4. Australia, Netherlands and Japan have also won the quad title, with the Aussies winning two of the last four events.

In the juniors it’s the Dutch who have won the most titles, with 7 victories overall but none since 2012. USA have four wins overall and three in the last five years so we can expect big things from them in the near future. Other nations to win the juniors event are: Belgium, Great Britain, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Australia.

2019 in review

The winning nations might not have taken anyone by surprise but the categories in which they won might have turned some heads at the 2019 BNP Paribas World Team Cup that took place in Ramat Hasharon in May last year.

Great Britain 2-0 France

Great Britain claimed the men’s title for the second time, beating France 2-0 in the final. Gordon Reid defeated Nicolas Peifer 6-1 7-6(3) before Alfie Hewett impressed with a 6-0 7-5 victory over Stephane Houdet to clinch the title.

Britain’s only other previous victory in the men’s event came in 2015 after another 2-0 victory over France in the final.

Watch highlights of the men’s final

Netherlands 2-1 Japan

Netherlands beat Japan 2-1 on the last day of the 2019 World Team Cup to earn a 31^st women’s title at the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event.

It was the fourth successive year that Netherlands faced a team from the Asian continent in the women’s final, having played China, P.R. in the decider at each of the previous three World Team Cups.

After the Chinese team upset Netherlands in 2017, Japan threatened to do the same for large portions of last year’s final but ultimately Marjolein Buis and Diede de Groot found the points that mattered to snatch the doubles rubber.

Watch highlights of the women’s final

Japan 2-1 Israel

Japan secured its first quad title, beating Israel 2-1 to deny the host nation of what would have been the perfect ending to its campaign on home soil.

The final opened as all of Israel’s ties during the week had, with former world No. 1 and London 2012 quad singles gold medallist Noam Gershony dominating his singles rubber and beating Shota Kawano 6-0 6-4.

Although Israel has often had the option of resting its second former world No. 1 Shraga Weinberg in preparation for a potential doubles rubber, Weinberg took to the court to attempt to complete an Israel victory in front of a highly excited and vocal band of fans.

However, world No. 3 Koji Sugeno proved too strong for Weinberg and sealed the contest 6-2 6-3, thus ushering in another deciding doubles rubber.

Japan continued to rewrite the script that all Israeli fans would have wished for as Mitsuteru Moroishi and Sugeno fought back from 2-0 down in the second set of the doubles, Sugeno firing a forehand winner down the centre of the court on Japan’s second championship point to seal a 6-4 6-2 victory after an hour and 24 minutes.  

Watch highlights of the quad final

Australia 2-1 Great Britain

Australia claimed the junior title for the first time, beating Great Britain 2-1 in the final.

In the process, the team of Finn Broadbent, Riley Dumsday, Hayley Slocombe and captain Greg Crump earnt Australia a place alongside Netherlands and USA as the only nations to have won each of the men, women’s, quad and junior titles in the illustrious 35-year history of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

Crump has now captained the Australian team to men’s, women’s and junior titles.

Watch highlights of the junior final