ITF announces entries for Singles Masters

The International Tennis Federation has announced the entries for the 2017 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, to be held in Loughborough, Great Britain from 29 November-3 December.

Hosted by the Tennis Foundation for the fourth successive year, the prestigious event takes place at the Loughborough University Tennis Centre for the first time.

The top eight men's singles and women's singles players and the top six quad singles players on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Rankings at the cut-off date of 16 October have qualified for the Masters.

The men's singles entries include four former champions in France’s current world No.2 Stephane Houdet, Sweden’s world No.6 Stefan Olsson, Belgium’s world No.7 and reigning champion Joachim Gerard and Japan’s world No. 8 Shingo Kunieda.

Eight of the world's top nine players are among the entries for the women's singles after current world No.3 Jiske Griffioen, the Masters champion for the last two years, announced this week that her playing career has come to an end.

In Griffioen's absence, Japan’s 2013 winner and current world No.1 Yui Kamiji and the Netherlands’ 2014 winner Aniek van Koot are the only former champions playing this year’s edition.

USA’s reigning and nine-time champion David Wagner heads the quad singles field of six players. World No.2 Andy Lapthorne, No.3 Dylan Alcott and No.4 Lucas Sithole are all former finalists. Australia's Heath Davidson and Sam Schroder of the Netherlands will make their debut.

Full entries are available online.