Austria, Chile, Israel and Poland will contest Thursday’s two men’s finals at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup Qualification in Vilamoura after all four nations booked their places at October's World Team Cup on a thrilling penultimate day of play in Portugal, which also saw Russia and Germany move into the women’s final, and Brazil join the Netherlands in the quad final.

With Wednesday’s semi-finals in the two men’s draws deciding which four teams would qualify for the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event in Sardinia In October, Nico Langmann and Martin Legner secured Austria’s 2-1 victory over eighth seed Germany after defeating Antony Dittmar and Steffen Sommerfeld 2-6 6-3 10-4 in the match tie-break of their deciding doubles match.

It was a tie that the Austrian team always thought could be a close contest.

“Even though their rankings are not as high, we know that these players have a high quality, so we knew it was going to be tough,” said Langmann after his 6-3 6-3 singles victory over Sommerfeld had forced the semi-final to the doubles.

“Martin had a very, very close match and obviously we would have liked to have been 2-0 up after the singles, so in the doubles we had a lot of pressure. We were a bit scared of losing I think, because we were the favourites. But luckily we managed to get through in the end.”

It was a contest that Germany did not deserve to lose on a double fault after Dittmar had beaten former world No. 3 Legner 7-6(4) 2-6 4-6 at the start of a long day to give Germany the lead. As for his own personal performance, Langmann admitted that there was ‘space for improvement’ as he continues to implement changes to his game made during 2020, after starting a new coaching relationship with Wolfgang Thiem, Dominic Thiem’s father, at the end of 2019.  

“I don’t feel like I had my highest level but the circumstances were difficult and the wind was difficult and there was a lot of pressure, so I’m just glad we won,” added Langmann, who also had the benefit of partnering seven-time Paralympian Legner, the winner of more than 250 doubles titles during his distinguished career.

“Martin is the doubles champion of so many tournaments, so you just have to listen to everything he says and it helps a lot having him on your side,” he said before turning to his relationship with the Thiem family.

“Training with Wolfgang is very much based on technique. I think Dominic is an example of having just a very beautiful technique and so obviously I try to be Dominic Thiem in the chair. We changed a lot with the grip and the whole stroke itself. It’s difficult to transfer it into the match situation yet, but I hope to do very much better soon.

“I’ve known Dominic for quite some time because Austrian tennis is a small group of people, so we are all kind of a family,” Langmann added as he outlined his friendship with the US Open champion. “I met Dominic in 2016 at a tournament in Rome and we stayed in contact and we are now very good friends. If we have time and we are both in Vienna we have lots of Mario Kart evenings and game evenings and I call him a very close friend of mine.

“He is very supportive of wheelchair tennis, since there is wheelchair tennis at the Grand Slams, so he knows about all the players and he asks me about Gustavo Fernandez and about Alfie Hewett. He knows about everything in the game, really. I want to be a Top 10 player and play in the Grand Slams myself one day. That is what I am working for.”      

Three of the four men’s semi-finals in Vilamoura came down to deciding doubles match, with Chile, Austria’s opponents in the decider of their draw, being the only one of the semi-finalists to secure a 2-0 win after singles wins for Brayan Tapia and Alexander Cataldo.

Austria will be seeking back-to-back victories in Vilamoura after beating Greece in the final of the European Qualification in 2019. They also lost out to Poland in the final of the 2017 European Qualification.

As Greece and Poland met to try and earn a final berth in Vilamoura this year, it was the Polish combination of Kamil Fabisiak and Piotr Jaroszewski that came out on top in a deciding doubles match that finished at 11.30pm. Fabisiak and Jaroszewski beat Stefanos Diamantis and Georgios Lazaridis 6-4 6-3.

Men’s top seeds Israel will play Poland in the final of their draw after Adam Berdichevsky and Guy Sasson dominated large parts of their deciding doubles contest against seventh seeds Sri Lanka to beat Suresh Dharmasena and Lasantha Ranaweera 6-0 6-4.

Germany’s women continue dream week in Vilamoura 

With Russia, Turkey, Germany and Brazil having already secured qualification in the the women’s event, Germany’s incredible week continued after they defeated second seeds Brazil 2-0 in their semi-final.   

On the back of beating third seeds France in the quarter-finals, the unseeded German duo of Britta Wend and Katharina Kruger won both their singles matches.

Wend, competing in only her second tournament, made light of her comparative lack of experience to defeat Brazil’s Maria Alves 6-2 6-2. However, Kruger had a much tougher time against Meirycoll Duval, ultimately using her World Team Cup experience of more than 15 years to clinch a final set tie-break and complete a 6-4 2-6 7-6(2) victory.

Top seeds Russia, former three-time winners of the European Qualification, wasted little time in earning their place in this week’s final in Vilamoura after all three team members, Ludmila Bubnova, Viktoriia Lvova and Amina Mangutova, beat Turkey 3-0 for the loss of just one game.

Brazil earn Sardinia qualification ahead of Netherlands test

Brazil will play the Netherlands in Thursday’s quad event final in Vilamoura after Brazil secured their place at the 2021 World Team Cup following a 2-1 victory over Sweden

With the two group winners in the five-team quad event qualifying for the World Team Cup in October, Netherlands had already sealed their berth by beating Turkey to top their group. Meanwhile, Ymanitu Silva and Leandro Pena ensured Brazil of their qualification after winning the last two matches in their second round-robin tie of the week against Sweden’s Petter Edstrom and Anders Hard.

World No. 6 Silva lived up to his billing as one of only three Top-10 quad singles players in Vilamoura as he defeated Eddstrom 6-2 6-1 before partnering Pena to defeat Eddstrom and Hard 6-3 6-1.

The final between the Netherlands and Brazil will bring together all three Top 10 players in the quad event and feature Silva along with Dutchmen Sam Schroder and Niels Vink.

Reflecting on Netherlands' 3-0 victory over Turkey earlier in the week, Schroder said:

“Personally I am very happy with the win, securing our spot back at the World Team Cup once again. This was our goal coming into the tournament and we have succeeded in good fashion, with three convincing wins against Turkey. It has been a couple of years since we have been in the main group of the World Team Cup, so I think both Niels and I look forward a lot to representing our country again.

“Representing the Netherlands will always feel a bit different compared to other tour events, but once I am on the court I am there to win, no matter who I am up against and who I represent. However, every match we play during the World Team Cup is one played by the whole team, so we win together and we lose together. We will be giving it our all during the final and I am confident we will be able to beat any team if we are able to show a high level of tennis.”