While the second day of the 2021 BNP Paribas World Team Cup saw the top four women’s seeds and the world’s leading juniors begin their title campaigns, with few problems for either, there were still plenty of significant talking points in Sardinia ahead of Wednesday’s last day of round-robin pool contests in the women’s and quad events.

When Sardinia first hosted the World Team Cup in 2017, Netherlands suffered a rare loss in the women’s final in what was their first World Team Cup for many a year without Jiske Griffioen.

However, with Griffioen having come out of retirement towards the end of 2019, her first match at the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event since 2016 could not have worked out much better after she registered a 6-0 6-0 win to kickstart the Dutch team’s 3-0 victory over the Russian Tennis Federation.

It was a win that world No. 1 Diede de Groot put beyond doubt after sealing her singles contest 6-1 6-1 to settle any nerves that may have existed on the Dutch return to Sardinia and they now play Turkey on Wednesday to secure a place in the semi-finals.

While Netherlands were silver medallists in Sardinia in 2017, USA secured their first women’s medal for 14 years after claiming the bronze and the American team are a match away from the semi-finals once again after beating Colombia 3-0.

On paper, it was the most comfortable of victories, but for Dana Mathewson it signalled a first win over Angelica Bernal since the 2019 World Team Cup after the world No. 8 beat the world No. 12 7-6(5) 0-6 6-2.

There were no rollercoaster contests for third seeds and 2019 bronze medallists Great Britain as they beat Mexico 3-0, with neither Lucy Shuker nor Cornelia Oosthuizen dropping a game in their singles matches and 18-year Abbie Breakwell securing her first senior World Team Cup win after partnering Oosthuizen in the doubles.

Great Britain are likely to meet sterner resistance against Germany in their final pool match-up.

Meanwhile, second seeds Japan beat South Africa 3-0, with Momoko Ohtani and Yui Kamiji dropping just one game apiece in each of the four sets of singles they played between them. Japan now meet Brazil.

Brazil edge Argentina as quest for junior medals begins

There are few sporting rivalries as close and as passionate as that between Argentina and Brazil and so it proved as the South American neighbours met on the opening day of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup junior event, which is once again supported by the Johan Cruyff Foundation, the partner of the ITF Junior Wheelchair Tennis Programme.

While Brazilian teams enjoyed a tremendous opening day of competition in Sardinia, winning each of their men’s, women’s and quad contests by a 2-1 scoreline, Brazil’s juniors did exactly the same thing as Jade Lanai and Joao Lucas Takaki combined to repel the challenge of Gonzalo Enrique Lazarte and Benjamin Jose Viana Silvetti.

Viana Silvetti beat Lanai, the current world No. 2 in the girls’ singles rankings and the year-end No. 1 in both 2019 and 2020, 6-3 6-3 as the 15-year-old ensured Argentina would at least extend Brazil to a doubles match-up. But it was Lanai and Takaki who ultimately pulled through 6-4 6-2 for Brazil, the junior bronze medallists in Sardinia in 2017 before winning the silver medal in 2018.

As the junior event began, the 2021 World Team Cup got its first look at 15-year-old Tokito Oda, world No. 1 in the boys’ rankings and world No. 14 in the senior men’s singles rankings. Oda duly obliged in Japan’s second singles match, beating Emirhan Toper 6-0 6-0 as the central act to Japan’s 3-0 win over Turkey.

Meanwhile, top seeds Great Britain, silver medallists in 2019, wasted little time in defeating France 3-0 and fourth seeds Netherlands proved clinical in securing a 3-0 victory over USA after world No. 1-ranked girl Lizzy de Greef opened with a 6-0 6-0 win.     

Dutch quads dominate against Great Britain

Sam Schroder and Niels Vink returned from the Tokyo Paralympics as doubles gold medallists and as singles silver and bronze medallists, respectively, and they showed every bit of the talent that secured those medals when beating Great Britain for a second 3-0 win in Pool 1 of the quad event, with just Turkey left to play.

Turkey are still searching for a first win in Sardinia after a 3-0 loss to South Africa, with South Africa now the last Pool 1 opponents for Great Britain as the competition for semi-final spots enters its final act.

Day two of Pool 2 contests in the quad event opened with Bryan Barten’s first-ever match against Brazil’s Leandro Pena going the distance, but Barten ultimately claimed the second set tie-break to emerge the victor 3-6 7-6(4) 6-3 before the USA wrapped up a 3-0 win.

USA now face an intriguing contest against Japan after Japan bounced back from their opening loss to Brazil to beat Canada 3-0.

Poland men edge past Austria

Seeded 11th for the men’s event in Sardinia, Poland beat seventh seeds Austria 2-1 in their Pool 1 contest in the latest World Team Cup meeting between the two nations to go the distance after Kamil Fabisiak and Piotr Jaroszewski claimed two tie-breaks against Martin Legner and Josef Riegler to prevail 7-6(4) 7-6(4).

Austria and top seeds Netherlands now complete their three-nation pool on Thursday, while Israel face second seeds Spain in one of the two remaining contests in Pool 2 after defeating Chile 3-0.

Spain remain in pole position in Pool 2 after Daniel Caverzaschi’s first singles match of the week kicked off a 3-0 win for the second seeds against the USA.

For regular updates to the daily match results and draws at the 2021 BNP Paribas World Team Cup, visit the event website here.