Hewett: It's great to see so many developing countries come through

Ten teams from nine different nations secured their place at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Portugal in May after emerging victorious at the Qualification event in Antalya, Turkey on 17-21 March.

That included Great Britain, led by new world No. 1 Alfie Hewett, who had to earn a spot in the main event the hard way after he and Ben Bartram came through a deciding doubles to beat Israel and secure their safe passage to Portugal.

The British team were taking part in the qualification event for the first time after missing the 2021 World Team Cup due to a combination of injury and illness, but Hewett was able to reflect on a positive week after his team secured victories over Germany, Sweden and Israel.

“This is my first time playing a World Team Cup Qualifying event and it’s been a really good event - I’ve enjoyed myself here,” he said. “It’s great to see so many developing countries come through. They’re really improving. There’s a lot of players coming through from all divisions so it’s really good to see. I’m really proud as a nation to qualify for the main event in Portugal in a few weeks.”

While the Brits, and Hewett in particular, proved the star draw, South Africa was the success story of the qualification event, becoming the only nation in Antalya to qualify for two competitions after its teams overcame Morocco in a deciding doubles in both of the men’s and women’s events.

South Africa will have three teams in action in Portugal after their Quad team qualified directly for the World Group last year.

South Africa were joined by Chile and Malaysia in qualifying for the men’s competition; and by France, Switzerland and Thailand in qualifying for the women’s event.

Israel and hosts Turkey qualified from the Quad event.

The full list of nations set to take part in the 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Portugal on 2-8 May is as follows:

Men: Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, France, Japan, Sri Lanka, USA, Poland, Korea, Rep., Brazil, Portugal (WC), Great Britain (Q), Malaysia (Q), South Africa (Q), Chile (Q), (one additional wild card spot)

Women: Netherlands, Japan, USA, Great Britain, Colombia, Germany, Brazil, France (Q), Switzerland (Q), Thailand, South Africa (Q), (one additional wild card spot)

Quad: Netherlands, USA, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, Great Britain, Israel (Q), Turkey (Q)

Juniors: Japan, Great Britain, Netherlands, Brazil, France (WC), Australia (WC), USA (WC), Argentina (WC)