With 39 of the world’s top players from 15 countries lining up for the men’s, women’s and quad division events at the 2019 NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters, fans are in for a real treat over the eight days of competition at the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona, Orlando, USA, from 19-26 November.

World elite compete for NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters titles

The ITF’s year-end wheelchair singles and doubles championships are being held simultaneously for the first time since 2013, with this year’s two men’s singles Grand Slam champion, Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina and Alfie Hewett of Great Britain. drawn in the same round-robin pool in Orlando, alongside former Stephane Houdet of France and Stefan Olsson of Sweden.

World No. 1 Fernandez is the only one of the three players yet to win the NEC Master title, with Hewett returning to the event for the first time since his maiden victory in 2017.

The men's singles entries include five former champions and three-time champions Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Joachim Gerard of Belgium are drawn in round-robin Pool B along with former NEC Masters finalists Nicolas Peifer of France and Gordon Reid of Great Britain.

Round robin Pool A in the women’s singles sees world No. 1 Diede de Groot drawn alongside fellow Dutchwoman and world No. 4 Marjolein Buis, former finalist Sabine Ellerbrock of German and world No. 6Zhenzhen Zhu, the first Chinese player to contest either the NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters or the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters.

Therefore, 2013 NEC Masters champion and world No. 2 Yui Kamiji of Japan will face 2014 NEC Masters champion and world No. 3 Aniek van Koot of Netherlands, South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane and world No. 5 Jordanne Whiley in her three round-robin matches in Pool B.

Just as she was this time last season, Van Koot is the only player to have beaten both Kamiji and de Groot so far this season, while Whiley contests her first NEC Masters since 2016, having made a strong return to competition after maternity leave.

In the absence of last year’s champion Dylan Alcott, the quad singles field is headed by world No. 2 Andy Lapthorne, the player who ended Alcott’s bid for a calendar year Grand Slam in spectacular fashion in the US Open final in New York.

Lapthorne’s quad singles round-robin Pool A in Orlando will see the Briton go up against Japan’s Cajun Classic champion Koji Sugeno and 16-year-old British Open champion Niels Vink of Netherlands, who is making his NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters debuts this year.

At the end of a landmark season for the quad division, which made its debut at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, Roland Garros finalist and ten-time NEC Masters champion David Wagner will be keen to try and win his 11th NEC Masters titles on home soil. Wagner is drawn in round-robin Pool B alongside Dutchman Sam Schroder, Super Series champion in France this year, and Australia’s world No. 7 Heath Davidson.

The top two players in each of the men’s, women’s and quad singles round-robin pools will advance to the semifinals, with the first set of round-robin matches in all three NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters events taking place on Tuesday’s first day of competition.

Stellar field for UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters events

The UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters brings together 18 of the world’s leading doubles pairings to contest the titles in men’s, women’s and quad division events.

And with less than 300 days to go until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, six of the eight men’s doubles partnerships, two of the six women’s doubles partnerships and one of the four quad doubles partnerships set to take to the courts at the USTA National Campus consist of players from the same country, who may be vying for medals in Tokyo.

The top two pairings in each of two pools in the men’s and women’s events will go forward to the semifinals in Orlando, where the top two partnerships after the pool stage of the quad doubles will meet again in the quad final.

The men’s doubles features five partnerships who contested the Rio 2016 Paralympics, including gold medalists Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer, silver medalists Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, Dutch duo Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers, Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Agustin Ledesma and Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi and Martin de la Puente.

Reigning UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters champions and top seeds Houdet and Peifer are drawn in round-robin Pool A for this year’s UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters alongside reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champions Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson.

The pool of four partnerships is completed by Parapan American Games gold medallists Fernandez and Ledesma and young USA partnership Chris Herman and Conner Stroud, who have replaced Japanese duo Shingo Kunieda and Satoshi Saida in the line-up.

Men’s doubles Pool B sees three-time US Open champions and 2017 UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid line up alongside Caverzaschi and De la Puente, Egberink and Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren and Jef Vandorpe.

In the women’s doubles, Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot, who completed the calendar year Grand Slam together in 2019, are drawn in Pool A along with two-time Paralympic bronze medalists Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley and Charlotte Famin and Zhezhen Zhu. Famin and Zhu are playing only their second tournament together.

Pool B of the women’s doubles sees second seeds and Japan Open champions Marjolein Buis and Dana Mathewson drawn to play Katharina Kruger and Kgothatso Montjane, whose latest matches together include a three-set quarterfinal loss to Buis and Mathewson at the Japan Open. Meanwhile, Pool B also includes South American duo Angelica Bernal and Maria Florencia Moreno, recent winners of the Brazil Open women’s doubles together.

Eleven-time quad doubles champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner will hope to claim their second Doubles Masters title on home soil after earning their seventh title in Mission Viejo, Southern California in 2013.

USA’s three-time Paralympic gold medalists and Rio silver medalists Taylor and Wagner are the only quad doubles combination in this year’s field to have been previously been crowned Doubles Masters champions.

Next to Taylor and Wagner, Kyu-Seung Kim and Koji Sugeno are the most experienced partnership of the four combinations in the quad doubles field, ten of their 11 tournaments together having come this season. They won two of three Korean tournaments they contested in April and have since reached Super Series finals at the Japan Open, the BNP Paribas Open de France and the British Open.

Heath Davidson and Niels Vink’s only tournament together so far saw them reach the semifinals of the US Open USTA Wheelchair Championships Super Series. Meanwhile, Andy Lapthorne and Sam Schroder will hope that they can translate Grand Slam and Super Series singles form into their first ever tournament as doubles partners.

All-in-all it’s another impressive line-up, with competition set to be fierce from the start as the four partnerships bid to earn a place in the top two combinations at the end of the robin phase. Those top two partnerships will them meet again for the title decider.

LIVE STREAMING OF THE 2019 NEC WHEELCHAIR SINGLES MASTERS AND UNIQLO WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES MASTERS WILL BE AVAILABLE EACH DAY VIA THE ITF WHEELCHAIR TENNIS WEBSITE.