Portugal and Turkey to host 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup
Portugal and Turkey continue their long associations with the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in 2022, with Vilamoura set to host the World Group of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event in May, while Antalya will host the Qualification Event in March.
Portugal will become the 20th different nation to host the World Group when the 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup takes place at the Vilamoura Tennis Academy on 2-8 May, where up to 44 teams will vie for the titles across the men’s, women’s, quad and junior events.
In Vilamoura in May this year, 16 nations will contest the men’s event, 12 nations will contest the women’s event, eight nations will contest the quad event and eight nations will also contest the junior event, which will once again be supported by the Cruyff Foundation.
Twenty-eight teams have earned direct entry for the 2022 BNP World Team Cup following their results at the 2021 World Team Cup in Sardinia, Italy. Nations that finished in positions 1-10 in the men’s event, positions 1-8 in the women’s event, positions 1-6 in the quad event and positions 1-4 in the junior event will be heading to Vilamoura in May.
Four men’s teams, four women’s teams and two quad teams will earn their places in Portugal when the Qualification Event takes place at the Megasaray Tennis Academy in Antalya, Turkey on 17-22 March.
The Megasaray Tennis Academy, which also hosted the 2021 Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Junior Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Finals, is also a regular host of UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour events in Turkey.
The BNP Paribas World Team Cup, often referred to as the Davis and Billie Jean King Cups of wheelchair tennis, has its origins in a precursor event in California in 1985 involving six men’s teams. The women’s competition began the following year, with quad and junior events introduced in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Due to the increased number of teams wanting to take part, the ITF introduced regional qualifying for the men’s and women’s events in 2012.
Turkey first hosted the World Team Cup World Group in 2010 before the event returned to Antalya in 2013 and 2015, while also hosting the European Qualification Event from 2012 to 2016.
The Vilamoura Tennis Academy in Portugal previously hosted the European Qualification Event from 2017 to 2019, and was due to host the World Group in 2020 before the event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The ongoing effects of the pandemic in 2021 saw the four regional qualification events combined into one competition at Vilamoura Tennis Academy for the first time.