ITF marks Wheelchair Tennis Masters week

In a normal year, the world’s finest wheelchair tennis players would be competing in Orlando this week at the NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters. But with the world still addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, the event will return in 2021.

Since 1994, the Wheelchair Tennis Masters has served as the grand finale to the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, an elite event that pits the very best of the men’s, women’s and quad divisions against one another to be crowned Masters champions.

The NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters invites the eight top-ranked men’s and women’s players and the top six quad players to compete. The fields are split into two round robin groups, with the top four players advancing to the semi-finals. The same format applies to the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters, where eight teams compete in the men’s event, six in the women’s event and four in the quad division.

Today – 16 November 2020 – should have seen the first matches of the round-robin stages get under way at the USTA National Tennis Campus in Lake Nona, Florida, with Joachim Gerard, Diede De Groot and David Wagner launching the defence of their 2019 NEC Wheelchair Masters singles crowns.

To mark the occasion, over the course of the coming week the reigning champions will be featured in a series of profiles and interviews alongside current and former greats of the game, as we seek to give the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour season the send-off it deserves. 

Coming up in this week’s coverage:

• David Wagner, an 11-time Wheelchair Masters champion in both singles and doubles, talks about the motivations that keep him going after so many years at the top of the game
• Joachim Gerard, winner of four of the last five men’s Wheelchair Masters singles titles, offers an insight into the physical and mental training required from the elite players
• Four ‘Dutch Masters’ – Diede De Groot, Aniek Van Koot, Jiske Griffioen and Esther Vergeer – appear together on a Zoom chat to discuss their experiences of the competition
• Yui Kamiji, the world No.2 and reigning Roland Garros champion, reflects on her tennis journey, as well as her heroes, rivals, compatriots and next year’s Paralympics in Tokyo

The series will culminate with replays of the 2019 Wheelchair Masters title matches on what should have been the 2020 finals weekend, 21-22 November.

And that’s not all - check back throughout the week for more from the world of wheelchair tennis as we pay tribute to legends past and present of the NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters.