World Team Cup: Australia and Israel into quad final

Great Britain unable to defend title as they lose to Australia 01 Jun 2018
Imagen
two male wheelchair tennis players in action

Australia's Dylan Alcott (L) and Israel's Noam Gershony will contest the World Team Cup quads final

ⒸRien Hokken
By ITF

Australia will play Israel in Saturday’s (2 June) quad final at the 2018 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. They defeated defending champions Great Britain and the USA, respectively, in the semi-finals.

The quad semi-final between Israel and USA opened with London 2012 quad singles gold medallist Noam Gershony defeating world No. 8 Bryan Barten 6-2, 7-6(4).

World No. 1 David Wagner then beat Ben Uriel 6-1, 6-0 to ensure the deciding doubles rubber.

Israel’s decision to rest Shraga Weinberg for the doubles paid obvious dividends as Gershony and Weinberg snatched a first set tiebreak against three-time Paralympic champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner.

However, ten-time UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles champions Taylor and Wagner fought back to gain the decisive break in the second set to force the match tiebreak.

Both teams had their chances in a dramatic few minutes that followed, but USA’s only match point came at 10-9 as Wagner missed with an overhead volley. Two points later, Gershony and Weinberg converted their second match point to complete their 7-6(3), 5-7, 12-10 victory and earn a place in the quad final for the second successive year.

The other semi-final proved relatively straightforward for top seed Australia, with Heath Davidson and Dylan Alcott earning straight sets wins over Antony Cotterill and Andy Lapthorne in the two singles rubbers.

Great Britain-Belgium and Japan-France in men’s semi-finals

After defeating fourth seed Argentina, last year’s bronze medallists Belgium confirmed their place in the semi-finals for the second successive year with a 3-0 victory over Austria.

Sixteen-year-old Jef Vandorpe maintained winning ways as he earned his second win of 2018 over Austria’s Nico Langmann 6-1, 7-5. World No. 9 Joachim Gerard put Belgium out of reach of Austria when he defeated Martin Legner 6-1, 6-2.

This brought Mike Denayer together with Gerard for the doubles rubber, achieving a 6-3, 6-1 win over Langmann and Josef Riegler.

Belgium’s third win in three ties was one of two contests that completed Pool D, with Argentina beating USA 2-1 in the other. Argentina is set to contest the play-offs for fifth to eighth places.

Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers ensured that hosts Netherlands will play for fifth place in the men’s event after beating South Korea’s Ho Won Im and Ha Gel Lee 3-0, both singles rubbers and the doubles ending in straight sets wins. The Netherlands will now play either Argentina or Spain for fifth place.

The play-offs for ninth place began with Brazil beating Australia 2-0 while the play-offs for 13th position opened with Morocco, winner of the African Qualification this year, defeating Thailand 2-1.

Chinese women play Great Britain, Netherlands face France

China confirmed their women’s semi-final berth against Great Britain with a straightforward 3-0 Pool B victory over Kenya.

Both singles rubbers took just over 30 minutes each to complete as Huimin Huang and Zhenzhen Zhu beat Asiya Sururu and Jan Ndenda 6-0, 6-0, respectively. Xiaohui Li and Ziying Wang took the doubles rubber 6-2, 6-0.

The Netherlands play fourth seed France in the other semi-final.

Pool A ended with a deciding doubles rubber after Maria Florencia Moreno and Karin Suther-Erath both ensured straight sets wins for Argentina and Switzerland, respectively.

After combining to leave Switzerland with a healthy fourth place finish in last year’s edition, Nalani Buob and Suter-Erath joined forces again to beat Andrea Medrano and Moreno 6-1, 6-2 in the deciding doubles rubber. Switzerland will now play Brazil in the first play-off tie for fifth place.

Meirycoll Duval and Natalia Mayara ensured Brazil will play for fifth place in the women’s event with straight sets wins over In Kyung Han and Ju-Youn Park of South Korea to close out Pool D.

Meanwhile, world No. 10 Dana Mathewson’s 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over former world No. 6 Sakhorn Khanthasit began USA’s 3-0 victory over Thailand to close out Pool C.

Full results are available on the ITF's website.