Netherlands, Japan and USA will each feature in the men’s and women’s singles semi-finals at the 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Vilamoura. But while 2021 runners-up Spain complete the last-four line-up in the men’s World Group, a brand new name appears among the semi-finalists for the women’s World Group after Colombia continued to live up to their seeding after defeating Brazil.

Seeded eighth for the women’s World Group this year, USA has a team that in past years would have been seeded several places higher than in 2022, with world No. 51 Shelby Baron currently ranked more than 25 places below her career-best.

Baron was delighted to give USA a winning start in their must-win Group C contest against France, having lost her only other previous match against Frenchwoman Pauline Deroulede at the 2021 World Team Cup seven months ago.

“I am so excited that I helped my team to victory today because not only did it mean that we made it to the semi-finals for the second year in a row, but also, I lost to her (Deroulede) last year and it made my team go to the deciding doubles and gave them a lot of pressure,” said Baron who beat her French opponent 6-4 6-2 in their latest head-to-head.

”Today, I took that pressure off and, also, beating a higher-ranked player is really exciting for me. I know my ranking doesn’t quite show where I am in the world right now, but again, I lost to her last year, I made some adjustments and I stuck to my plan, so I’m very, very happy.”

World No. 9 Dana Mathewson put the tie beyond France before partnering Emmy Kaiser to wrap up a 3-0 win that left USA as winners of Group C and with a semi-final against second seeds Japan to come.

Top seeds Netherlands and Japan also secured 3-0 wins over Great Britain and Germany, respectively, which was of little surprise given their track record of winning World Team Cup finals and medal matches.

However, Colombia’s progress to the semi-finals was less of a certainty, especially with Colombian No. 1 Angelica Bernal having been unexpectedly beaten in her first match of the week against Argentina’s Maria Florencia Moreno. Bernal also went 3-1 down to Brazil’s Meirycoll Duval with sixth seeds Brazil already leading their crucial Group D contest against Colombia 1-0. However, world No. 9 Bernal recovered to take the tie to a deciding doubles match and for the second day in a row the combination of Bernal and Johana Martinez combined to win their decisive doubles match.   

“I have different feelings about my singles matches yesterday and today,” said Martinez, who has been a member of all eight Colombian teams that have contested World Team Cup World Groups since 2010.

“Yesterday it was really nice to win my first singles and we were very confident in doubles. It’s been a long time that I’ve been playing doubles with Angelica. Today my singles was so low and I was like ‘oh no, it’s all my fault’ but Angelica did a great job in singles. We knew Brazil was maybe stronger than yesterday against Argentina, but I think we did great today. It’s amazing for the first time that Colombia is going to the semi-finals. Even if I’m tired, I’m so happy with this result.”

After coming through their crucial doubles match against Brazil 6-1 7-5, Colombia now face 32-time World Team Cup champions Netherlands in the semi-finals, with USA playing Japan in the other semi-final.

USA men reach first World Team Cup semi-final since 2003

It’s almost 20 years since USA joined the world’s elite in the last four of the World Team Cup, a period that also saw USA contest World Group 2 in the days before the event arrived at its current format.

Such was the success of American teams in the early days of the World Team Cup, winning the first seven men’s title, USA still holds the record for most men’s titles, having amassed nine titles up to and including 1997.

Casey Ratzlaff, Jason Keatseangsilp and Conner Stroud have at last given USA the opportunity of playing for a tenth title in 2022 after topping Group C this year with victories over Israel, Korea, Republic and, most recently France.

USA’s men went into the fourth day of play in Vilamoura with the same task as their women’s team - needing to beat fourth seeds France to guarantee a place in the semi-finals. However, after Frederic Cattaneo, a mainstay of so many of the French medal-winning teams of recent years, beat Stroud 6-4 4-6 6-3 in the opening singles match, world No. 23 Ratzlaff steadied the American ship, defeating world No. 15 Guilhem Laget.

Ratzlaff and Stroud, who have both tasted World Team Cup success when members of USA junior teams, then produced another big performance to beat former Paralympic men’s doubles medallist Cattaneo and Gaetan Menguy 6-4 6-4 to earn a 2-1 win for USA.

Japan finishing top of Group A was rarely in doubt from the first day of competition and Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda gave the top seeds an unassailable 2-0 lead after their respective singles matches against South Africa. As Group A winners, Japan now face last year’s runners-up Spain in a bid to reach Sunday’s final, when victory would give Oda extra reason to celebrate his 16th birthday.

However, beating Spain is the first task after Daniel Caverzaschi, Martin de la Puente, Enrique Siscar and Francesc Tur all combined to wrap up a comprehensive 3-0 win over Poland in Group D.

USA’s hopes of reaching a first World Team Cup men’s final since 2003 rest with a semi-final against defending champions Netherlands. Netherlands beat Chile 3-0 to top Group B despite Alexander Cataldo taking a set off Tokyo Paralympic silver medallist Tom Egberink, who still appears some way off his peak powers as he continues to recover from Covid-19 and subsequently missing last week’s Vilamoura Open.