Korea Republic made light of their seeding for the 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup after beating men’s fourth seeds France on the opening day of play at Vilamoura Tennis Academy in Portugal.

It was a memorable first day of round-robin group ties, which also featured a thrilling conclusion to the tie between Argentina’s and South Africa’s men’s teams and an astonishing comeback by South Africa’s quad team to secure an early win.

The Korean men’s team start the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event this year as 15th seeds, but with a number of leading nations missing top players among their ranks, it makes for a competition arguably as open as it has ever been. And so it proved for Sungbong Han and Ho Won Im, who both beat much higher-ranked opponents in Gaetan Menguy and Guilhem Laget in straight sets in their respective singles matches.  

World No. 46 Im’s 7-5 6-1 win over Laget leaves Korea Republic going into the second day of play at the top of Group C, ahead of USA. The Korean and American teams both lost their doubles matches to end with 2-1 victories, but their head-to-head now promises much when they meet on Tuesday.

The absence of key personnel in team line-ups was arguably a factor in Argentina’s 2-1 victory over South Africa, which world No. 3 Gustavo Fernandes and Ezequiel Casco finally wrapped up in a deciding match tie-break in their deciding doubles match.

Last year’s bronze medallists, Argentina are without their No. 2 ranked player Agustin Ledesma this year and after Alwande Sikhosana’s straight sets win over Casco, two-time ITF World Champion Fernandez duly sealed a dominant win over Eliphas Maripa before he and Casco edged a deciding doubles match tie-break 6-7 6-2 (10-6) to leave Argentina second to top seeds Japan at the end of the first day of play in Group A.

Argentina’s win means that Tuesday’s second day of play is likely to feature a fascinating singles match between Fernandez and either world No. 2 Shingo Kunieda or 15-year-old world No. 8 Tokito Oda, who won his first World Team Cup match as a senior player in Japan’s 3-0 victory over Brazil.   

Defending champions Netherlands and former champions Great Britain will also meet in Pool B on the second day of play after early 3-0 wins, while last year’s runners-up Spain will face Malaysia in pool D, with Spain comfortably beating host nation Portugal 3-0 in the week’s opening tie on Centre Court.

South African quad team save nine match points in thriller

After South Africa’s quad team narrowly missed out on becoming the first African team to reach a World Team Cup final in 2021, their quest to try and accomplish that feat this year started with a last-gasp victory over third seeds and 2019 champions Japan.

Lucas Sithole’s return to international competition for the first time since 2019 saw the former world No. 2 and 2013 US Open champion win a rollercoaster of a contest against Mitsuteru Moroishi 7-6 0-6 6-1 before Koji Sugeno’s 7-5 6-2 win over Donald Ramphadi sent the tie into a deciding doubles contest.

However, few could have predicted the drama that was to follow as Ramphadi and Sithole battled back from a set and 5-2 down - and nine match points down - to beat Moroishi and Sugeno 3-6 7-6 (10-3) after two hours and 20 minutes of fascinating wheelchair tennis.

South Africa will now face defending champions and top seeds Netherlands in their second Group A tie after Sam Schroder and Niels Vink demonstrated why they are the current top two ranked players in the world. Schroder and Vink both won their respective singles matches against Turkey 6-0 6-0 and dropped just two games in the doubles to seal a clinical 3-0 win.

Group B featured another engrossing round-robin contest between USA and Israel, the two nations that won the first two World Team Cup quad titles in 1998 and 1999.

Both singles matches went to deciding a set as Yosi Saadon made it two wins in three career matches against Bryan Barten, winning their latest encounter 6-2 5-7 6-1. The match-up between two former world No. 1 players that followed ended in a tense 7-6 3-6 7-5 victory for David Wagner.

As two nations that have won 13 World Team Cup titles between them went head-to-head for the deciding doubles match, Barten and Wagner’s experience as a partnership proved crucial as they secured the contest 6-2 7-5 to claim an overall 2-1 win for USA.

Brazil secured an opening 3-0 win in the other Group B tie as Ymanitu Silva and Leandro Pena combined to beat Great Britain, lining up a Brazil-USA match-up on Tuesday second day of competition in Vilamoura.

Australia juniors edge Japan 2-1 as former champions meet

The opening day of round-robin group ties in the junior event, which is supported by ITF Programme Partner the Johan Cruyff Foundation, brought a match-up between the last two World Team Cup junior champions in Australia and Japan. It was a contest that did not disappoint as second seeds Australia gained a hard-won 2-1 victory.

Riley Dumsday, the only remaining member of the Australian junior team that triumphed in Israel in 2019, opened the Group B clash with a 6-2 6-1 win over Takumi Ouchiyama before Yudai Kawai, the only member of the victorious 2021 Japanese team to return to the junior event this year, beat Saalim Naser 6-4 4-6 6-2.

Dumsday was involved in a doubles deciding set match tie-break against Great Britain in the 2019 final and another doubles match tie-break also went the way of Australia in their opening contest this year as Dumsday and Naser prevailed 6-3 4-6 [10-6].

Australia face Netherlands next after the Dutch team won both singles matches courtesy of Ivar Van Rijt and Lizzy de Greef en route to beating Argentina 2-1  

Group A began with a 3-0 win for Great Britain against France as Joshua Johns earned his first World Team Cup singles victory in his second appearance at the event.

However, the other Group A contest came down to a deciding doubles after Charlie Cooper and Jade Lanai secured their two singles matches for USA and Brazil. But ultimately the 2-1 victory went to USA after Cooper and Maylee Phelps wrapped up the doubles 6-4 6-4.