Great Britain’s wheelchair tennis team beat France to win the men’s 2015 BNP Paribas World Team Cup, while the Netherlands won the women’s title at the event held in Antalya, Turkey.
Australia won the bronze-medal match over Japan.
Britain’s Alfie Hewett, 17, won the opening match, beating Michael Jeremiasz 7-5, 6-1. It was the first time that Hewett, the world’s top-ranked junior, played at the senior level. Britain’s Gordon Reid beat Nicolas Peifer 7-6 (5), 6-2 to clinch Great Britain’s first-ever gold medal in the World Group. Due to the 2-0 British lead, the final doubles rubber, which would have featured British team members Marc McCarroll and David Phillipson, was not played.
Spain beat South Africa to win the World Group II title, thus qualifying for the World Group I competition in 2016. In a subsequent playoff, the United States (Steve Baldwin, Jon Rydberg and Hunter Groce) defeated the South African team to also advance to World Group I next year.
The Netherlands team of Jiske Griffioen, Aniek Van Koot and Diede de Groot took the gold medal in the women’s division by beating Japan in the final. Van Koot took the first rubber over Kanako Domori 6-3, 6-3. Griffioen, seeded second, then defeated top seed Yui Kamiji 6-4, 6-3, to clinch the gold medal. The teams scrapped the doubles rubber.
Great Britain defeated Germany to take the bronze medal.
The United States team of David Wagner, Nick Taylor, Greg Hasterok and Bryan Barton took the gold medal in the quad division. They were undefeated in nine rubbers and didn’t drop a single set in the tournament.
The United States also won the junior division behind players Christopher Herman, Conner Stroud and Casey Ratzlaff.
The BNP Paribas World Team Cup is the premier international team event in wheelchair tennis. A different host country produces the event each year. In 2015, the event’s 30th anniversary, 52 teams from 28 countries participated, according to the International Tennis Federation.
