This month’s UNIQLO interview looks at the positive impact that the BNP Paribas World Team Cup has had on the sport of wheelchair tennis.

Since it started back in 1985, the World Team Cup has given wheelchair tennis players an opportunity to do something that no other annual event can – to represent your country.

Tennis is traditionally an individual sport but, for one week every year, players who might be rivals for most weeks come together to play as part of a team.

Over the years the BNP Paribas World Team Cup has been responsible for creating some incredible memories. We look back at this unique event through the eyes of the players to find out what makes it so special.

Brad Parks (USA), the founding father of wheelchair tennis, on how the event has grown. In 1992 the World Team Cup moved outside of the United States for the first time, when Belgium hosted the event. 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), juniors (which began in 2000), qualifying events in four regions and 2020 would have represented a 20th nation hosting the event in the shape of Portugal:

“We never really envisioned the World Team Cup in the early days of the sport. The only reason we started the World Team Cup is because a lot of international players were starting to attend what was then our National Championships, so we changed the name to ‘US Open’ because we wanted everyone to come. The players were coming in the week before and couldn’t get a court at the tennis club, so we had to do something and we wanted the American players and the international players to mingle, so we started this event we called the ‘World Team Cup’ and it just grew and grew.

“When I told Ellen de Lange (from the ITF) that we didn’t want to host it anymore it wasn’t that we actually didn’t want to host it, we just felt that we couldn’t host it anymore because it had gotten too big. We also felt that it should move around and that different countries should bid for it and look at it now!”

Chantal Vandierendonck (NED) on playing in a combined Dutch-French team in 1985. As the only two women, they had to play against the men (The first women’s event was held in 1986):

“Back in 1985 there were not that many countries participating or they didn’t have enough players to form a team. I remember playing as a team with Martine Picard, a French girl. I think we played for Holland, or was it France? Nowadays that would be impossible. It’s amazing how much wheelchair tennis and the World Team Cup have grown in both countries and players. It’s absolutely great!

“It was fun to be able to beat some men. But when we had to play Laurent Giammartini, he was way too strong for us and he was just fooling around with us, showing all the corners of the court. However, I enjoyed it very much to play against such good players.

“They all had something special. I can’t remember which was my favourite, but I have seen it become more and more professional over the years; the organisation, as well as the players and coaches. Thirty titles, I could never imagine. I just never thought that the top of women’s wheelchair tennis would continuously come from the Netherlands. That is amazing.”

Karin Korb (USA) on the spirit of camaraderie:

“I also particularly remember a World Team Cup where a lot of players got food poisoning. Hope Lewellen was supposed to be playing at No. 1 for the USA. Anyway, Hope couldn’t play and I remember having to step into that role and that was a really profound thing for me to be able to do.

“At the same time I remember how, in that situation, all the players really looked after each other. There were multiple teams that were affected but we all stepped in to help each other. It was beyond competition and beyond playing for your country and all about being a kind human being.

“I remember first watching Ricky Molier and Monique (Kalkman) at some of my very first World Team Cups. There are so many leaders in our movement that were so inviting to me as a relatively new player.”

Martin Legner (AUT), who has played more World Team Cups than any other player, on what makes the competition special:

“Wheelchair tennis was not well known in Austria in 1990, so we were just three players (Robert Troppacher, Klaus Salzmann and Legner) from Austria. We didn’t have any Austrian uniform, but we went, and it was great playing there for the first time.

“I’ve enjoyed every World Team Cup and each one has its qualities and its differences. At the start we did really well for Austria and won bronze medals several times. Recently we’ve had to go through qualification but have still made it to the main draw.”

Diede de Groot (NED) on helping Netherlands’ women’s team to a 30th title in 2018 after a late-night deciding doubles rubber against China in front of a partisan Dutch crowd:

“Winning the World Team Cup on home soil in a deciding doubles and in a super tiebreak was crazy. So many people stayed and watched. All of my family were there and the atmosphere was amazing. You could feel the tension until the last point. Winning after such a tough battle in front of many people who came to watch just for you. It’s definitely one of the best moments of my career.

“It was a hectic week with a lot of people who wanted to talk to us. Understandably because everyone was excited for us and wanted us to win. It did feel like extra pressure, but we tried to keep the focus on tennis and getting those two points.”

Three-time champion Shingo Kunieda (JPN):

“I am always very proud to represent Japan.

“The memories of winning in 2003, 2007 and 2018 are some of the biggest achievements in my career.”

Greg Crump (AUS) on defeating the mighty Dutch women at Flushing Meadows in 1999 (Crump is the only person to have coached winning teams in each of the men’s, women’s, quad and junior competitions after Australia won the junior event for the first time in 2019):

“We only had two women’s players in New York, Danni di Toro and Branka Pupovac. Danni hadn’t lost a singles all week and we went 1-1 in the singles against the Dutch in the final. Come to the deciding doubles we kept going with the same cunning plan we had for the rest of the week and it worked out again. It was pretty special to out-coach another team, which was, on paper, better than us.

“It was also the same night as the official dinner for the World Team Cup, so the really cool thing was that they’d held the dinner off for us, even though it was a really late finish at the courts, so when we came into the room everyone gave us the biggest welcome we could have believed.”

David Hall (AUS) on how the World Team Cup gave him the belief that he could beat the best:

“I played my first in 1990 and I think I missed one, so I’ve done something like 14 World Team Cups. Each year I’d look at the calendar to decide where I was playing and mark down the big events, the Super Series, the Japan Open, and so on, every four years the Paralympics and, of course, the World Team Cup. It was always a unique event and when we all got together as a team the feelings were so strong. I would rank winning the World Team Cup up there with winning the US Open (Super Series) and the British Open titles.

“In those early days I was finding my way and the World Team Cup gave me the opportunity to play players I’d never played before. I guess the one that stands out for me was our very first World Team Cup title in 1994 in Nottingham. On the first morning I was having breakfast in the hotel with Gunther Jandrasits of Austria and joked that if we won I would jump into the moat that went around the hotel. I knew we were among the nations that had a chance, but of course, as the week went on we kept winning and it got closer and closer.

“We beat France in the final and Brian Tobin (then ITF President) was there to present the trophy and with Brian being an Aussie that was a big deal for us. But the final started off a bit strange as they didn’t have our national anthem for some reason and so they played ‘Great Southern Land’ by this band called Icehouse. So there I was next to Mick Connell and when that song started I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It really got me fired up in a good way. I beat Laurent Giammartini, then world No. 1, for the first time that day and it was the springboard to giving me the belief that I could go on and beat the best.”

David Wagner (USA) on taking the rough with the smooth. The USA has won a record nine titles in the World Team Cup quad event.

"My first year was 2002. I remember losing the final in Italy in the deciding doubles. It was so much fun to be representing USA, and a real honour. However, at the same time it was so heartbreaking to be so close and take that loss.

“The following year, 2003, we came back and in Poland won my first World Team Cup. I will never forget that feeling. As well, that World Team Cup was a huge success for all the USA teams. All four of our teams that year medalled. That was so awesome."

The Australian doubles team on winning the junior title for the first time in 2019:

Riley Dumsday (AUS)

“The experience and atmosphere was fantastic. With tennis generally being an individual sport having that team environment was not only great for support but it also helped push me to dig deep and give it my all.

“When we won the final, I was at first shocked and stunned until I realised what we had achieved. It was an amazing moment that took a while to sink in.”

Finn Broadbent (AUS)

“It was an unbelievable experience and something I’ll never forget. I was very nervous in those final points of the super tiebreak but managed to hold it together until the end. I never thought at the start of the week that we would be the team to win this having faced many challenges throughout the week.

“I felt that, playing in a team environment, you had the responsibility of not letting your teammates down and also yourself and your pride. And for my parents to be there as well was a huge boost in confidence, as well as my partner Riley re-assuring me along with my coach that we can win this.”

Thanks to the ongoing support from title event sponsor BNP Paribas and international sponsor UNIQLO, the World Team Cup continues to go from strength to strength allowing more nations to compete every year.