Great Britain and Australia set for World Team Cup junior final
For the second time since 2019, Great Britain and Australia will contest the junior final at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup. Great Britain will be hoping it will be third time lucky as they bid to end their run of back-to-back silver medals.
Supported by ITF Wheelchair Tennis Programme Partner the Johan Cruyff Foundation, the junior World Group has long since proved to be an important stepping stone in the development of many of the sport’s most decorated players, with Dahnon Ward and Riley Dumsday hoping to join a star-studded cast of graduates in the future.
Ward and Dumsday led their respective teams to Sunday’s World Team Cup junior final, Great Britain beating Netherlands 2-0, while Australia also secured a 2-0 win over first-time semi-finalists France.
Such were the raw emotions surrounding the late-night finish of the 2019 junior final in Ramat Hasharon, Israel that both players have vivid memories of the occasion.
“I remember, it was 14-12 to us in a third set match-tiebreaker, and it was one rubber-all so we had to go to doubles. The match finished about 1.00am in the morning,” said Dumsday, the only member of the 2019 Australian junior team to be back for this year’s final after he and teammate Saalim Naser dropped just one game between them in this year’s 2-0 semi-final win over France.
“I remember getting back to the hotel room and being extremely happy and relieved and going to sleep knowing that I’d won the world championships. It was a really good feeling.”
Dumsday admits to being ‘a bit nervous’ about Sunday’s final against Great Britain. “I think it'll be a good match between both teams and I hope that we can come out on top,” he adds.
Australia were seeded fourth and Great Britain were seeded seventh for the 2019 World Team Cup, where the Colombian team seeded sixth included Zulenny Rodriguez Trujillo. Now aged 20, Rodriguez Trujillo is a member of the Colombian women’s team that will fight for the bronze medal in Vilamoura.
This time around the Great Britain junior team are top seeds, with Australia the second seeds. It’s an order that Ward hopes will be replicated on Sunday after Great Britain also missed out in a deciding doubles match against Japan at the 2021 World Team Cup in Sardinia.
In Sardinia, Japan’s winning junior team was led by Tokito Oda, who has made his senior debut for Japan’s men’s team this week in Vilamoura. The world No. 1 in the Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Rankings hopes to celebrate his 16th birthday with a bronze medal on Sunday.
However, for 16-year-old Ward, who was named the ITF’s inaugural Junior Player of the Year in 2020, the aim is a much sought-after gold medal this time.
“It would mean everything to win the gold this time. It’s been a difficult semi-final today and it would be good to win the title at the third time of trying,” said Ward after Great Britain’s 2-0 semi-final win over Netherlands.
“It definitely won’t be easy, but I think we can take it in the singles. I’ve got total trust in my teammates, but if it doesn’t happen and it goes to doubles, we’re definitely well prepared to win it.”