France, Switzerland and Turkiye sealed victory at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup European Qualification in Antalya, Turkiye to add their names to the list of nations who have now progressed from four regional qualification tournaments for the 2023 BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

Having earned their place among the entries for the quad World Group in 2022, when all four regional qualifications were held during one week in Antalya, third seeds Turkiye made the most of home advantage again this year and secured 3-0 wins over the quad teams from Italy, Great Britain and Germany on three successive days.

Ahmet Kaplan and world No.12 Ugur Altinel both put together a sequence of confident performances to win each of their singles matches in straight sets, with Turkiye dropping just one set in doubles competition throughout their three days of competition as Fatih Karatas partnered Kaplan to wrap up all three 3-0 victories.

Top seeds Great Britain were unable to field full-strength teams both before and during this year's European Qualification, while Kaplan and Altinel proved too strong for German twin brothers Marcus Laudan and Maximilian Laudan on the last day of quad round-robin ties to wrap up a convincing victory.    

Turkiye now join Thailand, winners of the quad event at the Asian Qualification, in progressing to the World Group, which takes place in Vilamoura Portugal on 1-7.

France justify top seeding in men’s qualification

With eight-time World Team Cup champions France in the unusual position of having to qualify for the men’s World Group this year, the top seeds joined Austria, Slovakia and Poland in winning the four round-robin groups of three nations.

Second seeds Austria comfortably negotiated their way back from 1-0 down against Germany to win the only deciding doubles match needed to complete the semi-final line-up on the last day of round-robin competition as Nico Langmann and Martin Legner combined to ensure that Austria topped Group B.

Having already helped Austria come from behind to beat Germany, Langmann and Legner faced a much tougher task against third seeds Poland and it was Kamil Fabisiak and Piotr Jaroszewski who ultimately came out on top in a thrilling match tie-break in the doubles decider, earning Poland’s place in the final 6-4 1-6 (10-7).

While it was a tense 2-1 victory for Poland, France assumed immediate control of their semi-final against Slovakia after Gaetan Menguy beat Jozef Felix 6-1 6-2 in the opening singles contest. Thereafter, world No.19 Frederic Cattaneo, the event’s highest ranked men’s player, led Slovakia’s Marek Gergely 2-0 in the second singles match when Gergely was forced to retire, giving France passage to the final.

A dominant week for the top seeds concluded with Menguy and Cattaneo dropping just five games between them in the final. Menguy beat Tadeusz Kruszelnicki 6-0 6-2 and Cattaneo defeated Fabisiak 6-3 6-0 as France wrapped up a 2-0 victory to seal their qualification for the World Group, having completed 10 matches across four ties for the loss of just 16 games.

Swiss women win European Qualification for second time

When Switzerland won the women’s event at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup European Qualification in Vilamoura, Portugal in 2017, they did so by defeating Belgium and Sweden in a series of deciding doubles matches.

Six years on, the Swiss team earned their return to Vilamoura, this time for the World Group, with  a sequence of comfortable wins requiring no deciding doubles matches and with only one set dropped in three ties in Antalya.

Nalani Buob and Angela Grosswiler led top seeds Switzerland through their robin-robin group for the loss of just six games in ties against Austria and Lithuania, but for second seeds Italy the route to the final via the other round-robin group was made that much tougher by host nation Turkiye.

The decisive Group B tie between the Italian and Turkish teams turned into a thrilling encounter after Esra Bozdemir won her first World Team Cup match for the host nation when beating Italy’s Giulia Valdo 6-3 6-3.

Busra Un went into the second singles match with just one win in six matches over Italy’s Marianna Lauro, but the third successive three-set contest between the two players went all the way to a final set tie-break. Lauro prevailed 6-3 4-6 7-6(2) to take the tie into a crucial doubles decider and the tension continued to build as Turkiye won the first set of the doubles. However, Lauro and Vanessa Ricci dug deep and ultimately sealed the tie 2-1 after beating Bozdemir and Un 6-7(3) 6-2 (12-10).

Having fought hard to reach the final, Italy made a bright start in their bid to earn qualification for the World Group as Ricci took the opening set of her singles match against Grosswiler. But the success was short-lived and Grosswiler came back strongly to seal a Swiss win 6-7(5) 6-0 6-1 before world No. 22 Buob gave Switzerland an unassailable 2-0 lead when she beat Lauro 6-1 6-4.

Attention turns to World Group in Vilamoura

With Poland awarded the last wild card for the men’s event, 44 teams from 25 nations will line up in Vilamoura, Portugal in a little over a month’s time when 16 men’s teams, 12 women’s teams, eight teams of quad players and eight teams of junior players vie for the 2023 BNP Paribas World Team Cup World Group titles on 1-7 May.

Following the completion of the four regional qualifications, Morocco, Brazil, Sri Lanka and France will all be among the 16 men’s nations competing in Vilamoura, along with the nations that finished in positions 1-10 at the 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Vilamoura.

Meanwhile, Nigeria, Chile, China, P.R. and Switzerland, winners of this year’s women’s qualification events, will line up alongside the nations that finished in positions 1-8 in the women’s World Group in Vilamoura last year.

Thailand and Turkiye, winners of this year’s two qualification events for the quad World Group, join the nations that finished in positions 1-6 in the quad World Group in Vilamoura in 2022.       

2023 BNP Paribas World Team Cup Entries After Regional Qualifications