Great Britain’s women faced three match points before finally securing a semi-final berth on a dramatic third day at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Sardinia, where they are joined in the last four by Japan, Netherlands and the USA.

Meanwhile, South Africa earned a top four finish in the quad event, at the expense of Great Britain, and will now contest the medals for just the second time alongside fellow semi-finalists Netherlands, USA and Japan.

There was little to suggest the upcoming drama as Cornelia Oosthuizen opened Britain’s last round-robin pool match-up with Germany with a 6-3 6-3 win over Britta Wend. However, when Katharina Kruger secured just her second career victory over Lucy Shuker in 29 meetings it opened all kinds of possibilities.  

Oosthuizen and Shuker’s first competitive doubles outing together started well, but the momentum started to shift after the third seeds went 2-0 up in the second set and Kruger and Wend claimed the tie-break and made much the better start to the decisive match tie-break, ultimately earning three match points at 9-6.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kruger and Wend had never met in person until the World Team Cup Qualification Event in Portugal in May, where former handball player Wend made her international wheelchair tennis debut just a week earlier at the Vilamoura Open.

In the circumstances, Kruger described their victory over France en route to the Qualification Event final as ‘a miracle’, but with an even more miraculous victory in Sardinia so close, Kruger and Wend were unable to deliver the decisive blow and Oosthuizen and Shuker took the last five points to wrap up a memorable 6-1 6-7(5) [11-9] victory for Great Britain.   

There was another match tie-break in another deciding doubles rubber as USA’s Emmy Kaiser and Dana Mathewson narrowly got the better of France’s Pauline Deroulede and Charlotte Fairbank, the same partnership that Kruger and Wend beat at the qualification event in Portugal in May.

The American partnership’s 4-6 6-3 [10-6] win saw USA top Pool 4 and stay on track in their bid to at least equal the bronze medal they won in Sardinia in 2017.

If USA are to improve on their 2017 bronze medal they will need to topple top seeds Netherlands in their semi-final after the 31-time World Team Cup champions dropped just one solitary game in defeating Turkey 3-0 to finish first in Pool 1.

For Great Britain, next up it’s a semi-final against second seeds Japan, who beat Brazil 3-0 with Momoko Ohtani and Yui Kamiji’s two singles matches passing for the loss of just three games.

South Africa quad team earn semi-final return

South Africa’s Danny Mohlamonyane and Donald Ramphadi earned their second victory in successive days to secure 2019 bronze medallists South Africa a return to the semi-finals of the World Team Cup quad event.

Starting the final day of Pool 1 contests in second place behind top seeds Netherlands, South Africa maintained their position with a 2-1 win over Great Britain as Mohlamonyane battled to a 6-1 3-6 6-4 victory over Greg Slade and Ramphadi defeated James Shaw 6-0 6-4.

While it was a different story as all four players went head-to-head again in the doubles and Shaw and Slade eased to a 6-1 6-1 win, the damage was already done for fourth seeds Great Britain.

Netherlands made it three 3-0 wins in successive days as Sam Schroder and Niels Vink overpowered Turkey’s Ugur Altinel and Fatih Karatas, with Vink’s 6-0 6-4 win over Karatas proving to be the most games that the Dutch have shed in any of their singles matches so far this week.

USA and Japan have had plenty of key encounters at the World Team Cup over the years, including when Japan denied the Americans a top four finish in the quad event for the first time in 2016.

However, it was USA who came out with a 2-1 victory in their last Pool 2 contest in Sardinia as three-time Paralympic gold medallists and 11-time Doubles Masters champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner battled to 4-6 6-2 [10-4] win over Shota Kawano and Koji Sugeno.

Behind the USA, Japan still go into the semi-finals with just one win from their three contests after seventh seeds Canada upset the odds against Brazil, with Gary Luker and Rob Shaw denying Ymanitu Silva and Leandro Pena 6-3 6-7(1) [10-8] in their deciding doubles.  

Argentina and France men make it two from two

With one day of round-robin matches left in the men’s event, third seeds Argentina remain in pole position in Pool 3 after their 2-1 win over Japan.

When he’s not playing wheelchair tennis, Japan’s Daisuke Arai works for World Team Cup title sponsor BNP Paribas, but Arai was fully focused on the job in hand on the tennis courts on the third day of play in Sardinia as he beat Agustin Ledesma 4-6 6-4 6-4.

However, world No. 4 Gustavo Fernandez soon levelled proceedings and Fernandez and Ledesma grew in stature throughout the deciding doubles contest to seal a 7-5 6-0 win.

Fourth seeds France won both of their latest Pool 4 singles matches for the loss of just two games by Frederic Cattaneo and Nicolas Peifer.

Great Britain, the World Team Cup junior silver medallists in 2019, continued their bid to make it to another final as Dahnon Ward and Ben Bartram steered the top seeds to three straight sets wins over Netherlands in the second of their three Pool 1 contests.

Meanwhile, in the same pool, Damien Dubois and Justin Michel won both of their singles matches as France gained an unassailable lead against USA after their opening day loss to Great Britain.