ITF lists World Team Cup nominations

France, the Netherlands and Israel are the defending champions in the BNP Paribas World Team Cup events. 19 May 2013

A picture of a man in a wheelchair playing a backhand during a wheelchair tennis match

France's Stephane Houdet playing a backhand during his semi-final against the Netherlands' Ronald Vink at the 2013 Australian Open Wheelchair Championships.

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By ITF

The World Team Cup is the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis event, often referred to as the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced the nominations for the 2013 BNP Paribas World Team Cup wheelchair tennis event at the Club Ali Bey Manavgat in Antalya, Turkey, a seven-day event that begins on Monday (20 May).

The Netherlands are defending their women’s and junior titles, while France are the defending men’s champion and Israel the defending quads champion.

Fifty-two teams from 28 countries are contesting five events: men’s World Group (12 nations), men’s World Group 2 (12 nations), women’s World Group (12 nations), quad event (eight teams) and junior event (eight teams).

Regional qualifying events were held in Kenya, Turkey and the USA, with men’s teams from Canada, Greece and Nigeria, and women’s teams from South Africa and Spain joining the direct entries and wild cards.

The World Team Cup is the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis event, often referred to as the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis.

The initial event took place in California in 1985 involving six men’s teams. The women’s competition began the following year, with quad and junior events introduced in 1998 and 2000, respectively. The ITF introduced regional qualifying for the men’s and women’s events in 2012.

Men’s World Group top four seeds

Netherlands (seeded 1): Maikel Scheffers, Ronald Vink, Rody de Bie

France (2): Stephane Houdet, Michael Jeremiasz, Nicolas Peifer, Federicc Cattaneo

Japan (3): Shingo Kunieda, Takashi Sanada, Takuya Miki

Great Britain (4): Gordon Reid, Marc McCarroll, Dave Phillipson

Women’s World Group top four seeds

Netherlands (1): Aniek van Koot, Jiske Griffioen, Sharon Walraven

Germany (2): Sabine Ellerbrock, Katharina Kruger, Bianca Osterer

Great Britain (3): Lucy Shuker, Jordanne Whiley, Louise Hunt

Japan (4): Yui Kamiji, Miho Nijo

Quad event top three seeds

USA (1): David Wagner, Nick Taylor, Greg Hasterok, Bryan Barten