Netherlands net women's and quad World Team Cup title double
Netherlands remain on course to claim a historic hat-trick of BNP Paribas World Team Cup titles after winning the women’s and quad titles 2-0 on the penultimate day of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event in Alghero, Sardinia.
With Sardinia having hosted the World Team Cup for the first time in 2017, that event ended in a shock defeat for the Dutch women’s team at the hands of an in-form Chinese team.
However, there was to be no unwelcome repeat for the top seeds in 2021 as world No. 3 Aniek van Koot opened up a 5-2 lead over world No. 5 Momoko Ohtani.
Van Koot was unable to serve out the first set, but made no mistake on her first set point on Ohtani’s next service game, slotting home a forehand down the line.
The sixth women’s final since 2001 to feature Netherlands and Japan saw Ohtani recover from a 2-0 deficit at the start of the second set, but the 2020 Roland Garros finalist was unable to keep her momentum going and Van Koot reeled off the next four games for a 6-3 6-2 win.
The only suggestion of an upset came at the start of the second singles as world No. 1 Diede de Groot took on world No. 2 Yui Kamiji, with Kamiji opening up a 5-2 lead.
But with the 27-year-old having won just one of her eight previous matches against De Groot this season, she could not sustain her attack and Golden Slam winner de Groot went on to wrap up a 7-5 6-1 victory to give Netherlands their 32nd World Team Cup women’s title.
Dutch duo Sam Schroder and Niels Vink needed to qualify to earn Netherlands a place in the quad World Group in Sardinia, but accomplished that in style in Portugal in May.
More recently, their individual successes have included winning the quad singles silver and bronze medals at the Tokyo Paralympics and they were both in fine form in Sardinia.
World No. 3 Vink made an immediate statement of intent as the quad final against USA began, the 18-year-old breaking Bryan Barten to love and going on to claim the first singles match 6-0 6-1.
World No. 2 Schroder was almost as efficient against former world No. 1 David Wagner and served out the contest to love for a 6-2 6-1 win, earning Netherlands their first World Team Cup quad title since 2008.
Great Britain to play Japan for junior title
With Netherlands already through to play Spain in Sunday’s men’s final, any ambitions of securing a clean sweep of all four World Team Cup titles came to an end when Japan beat Netherlands 2-1 after the deciding doubles contest in their junior semi-final.
The opportunity of becoming the first nation to win all three senior titles at the same World Team cup remains, but the junior title will go to either 2019 silver medallists Great Britain or Japan.
Top seeds Great Britain won both singles matches in their semi-final against Brazil as Dahnon Ward and Ben Bartram dropped just three games between them in the 2-0 victory.