While the BNP Paribas World Team Cup may be over for another year, behind some of the main headlines - such as Japan’s first women’s title and South Africa’s quads becoming the first African team to reach a World Team Cup final - there are plenty of other stories of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair team event inspiring players from developing wheelchair tennis nations and helping make a difference to their lives.

The World Team Cup Qualification Event in Antalya, Turkey in March, saw Pakistan make its World Team Cup debut.

“It was the first time for a Pakistan team to participate in such an event in 75 years of history of Pakistan,” says Asif Abbasi, the winner of one main draw singles title and two second draw singles titles on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour between 2017 and 2020.  

“It was a great honour to be the first to represent Pakistan in the event. History was created when I became the first ever Pakistani to win three international wheelchair tennis tournaments so far, to achieve a world ranking of 82 and to be in the top 100 in the world in 2018. To be the part of team who participated first time in World team Cup Qualification event was another great honour.”

Abbasi took up wheelchair tennis in April 2017 and lives and plays the majority of his tennis in Britain, where he’s won three UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour draws to date. But he is a proud Pakistani and, understandably, he and his teammates’ proudest moment in Antalya came when winning their round-robin tie against India 2-1.

“In the decider, we were not very strong but managed to win by giving our all and that resulted in a great victory. We came fourth (of seven nations) in our Asia group. That was our achievement. But apart from that we were honoured to meet the ITF wheelchair team and met old and new friends.

“My teammates Fida Hussain and Mohammad Irfan started their wheelchair tennis journeys in Pakistan about three years back. They are very hard working and dedicated players. That was the first time ever they had played and witnessed wheelchair tennis internationally. They learnt many things during this event," adds Abbasi, who is currently the only player from Pakistan on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Rankings for men’s singles.

“As I am an LTA qualified Level 3 tennis coach and have international playing experience and training in wheelchair tennis coaching, I am glad that I could help them with the wheelchair movements and right technique and tactics to play matches during the qualification event," the 45-year-old continues.

"I hope for their training and methods to improve in the future and hope that by having good coaching and playing more matches they will get better. I also hope we will find new players after this successful World Team Cup event.”

Aside from on-court rivalries and ambitions to achieve the best result possible for your country, the World Team Cup has a rich history of creating and nurturing life-long friendships among players. This was also evident in Antalya.

“The players from India are very nice, and really good players,” says Abbasi. “I had met them before the qualification event, and we have a great camaraderie. They are known by Manoj (Manojkanth Somasundaram, runner-up in the 2020 UNIQLO Spirit Award) and they are also great friends. There were nice gestures from both nations’ players during our World Team Cup qualifying fixture.”

The debut of Pakistan at the World Team Cup Qualification Event this year is, it is hoped, the start of much more to come.

“The Pakistan Tennis Federation has initiated a programme in Karachi and they have trained and provided budding players with an opportunity to learn wheelchair tennis,” says Abbasi. “This programme is in other cities, as well, but there are many challenges which they are facing - for example, access to sports wheelchairs, funding to run the programmes, developing more disabled players, a transparent and professional approach and, above all, they need wheelchair tennis experienced, trained and qualified coaches to teach wheelchair tennis to disabled players.

We have great hopes for the future of Pakistan wheelchair tennis,” he adds. “After (the qualification event) many young disabled people contacted me on social media and asked me to help them to learn wheelchair tennis. I would love to train and share my knowledge with Pakistani players, so we can develop them to compete at international level.

“But they also need sponsorships which help them to focus and devote their time to tennis. To achieve this, we need help from national and international organisations to fund the programmes so Pakistan can rise in wheelchair tennis.”

Costa Rica on the rise and Tanzania's history-makers

Costa Rica’s second place to Chile in the Americas Qualification men’s play-offs in Antalya represented a personal best for the Central American country, while the Costa Rica women’s team finished in the top eight in their event.

“It was a beautiful week with my team; it was so many new experiences for them traveling to Europe. It was a week full of emotions,” says Jose Pablo Gil, Costa Rica’s first ever Paralympian after he qualified to play at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

“I think for us the most important memento was in the semifinal, winning in the super tie-break against Colombia - that was a big achievement for all of us.”

Sharing on social media during the World Team Cup Qualification Event, Gil referred to his teammates as his ‘project students’ and expressed how proud he was of their joint achievements in Antalya.

“I started with a wheelchair tennis programme in Costa Rica in 2017 and they are part of this project,” says Gil, whose own wheelchair tennis journey began after he was injured in a car accident in August 2016. He had already had more than eight years’ experience of playing on his feet before his accident and was one of Costa Rica’s most promising junior players.

“Also, the two girls who are part of the women’s team are part of this project. That is why I’m so proud of them, because I’m their coach, friend and part of the team and I know all the effort they put in all these years to be there,” adds Gil who, now aged 27, reached a career best singles ranking of No. 22 in May.

“I hope we can get more economic and knowledge-based help to continue improving. One of my dreams when we started this project is to get to the World Team Cup World Group, Parapan American Games and to the Paralympics with a big Costa Rica team.

While Costa Rica are among the nations to have received a Wheelchair Tennis Development Fund visit in 2020, Tanzania are among the African nations to have received a visit as part of the same ITF initiative some 15 years ago.

Successful in the men’s event at World Team Cup African Qualification Events in previous years, Tanzania only had a women’s team in Antalya this year. While the team missed out against Kenya and Nigeria in their round-robin group, coach Riziki Seleman was proud of the efforts of Rehema Selemani and Lucy Shirima, who have previously made history with their participation at the World Team Cup African Qualification.

“They got a lot of new exposure to how the game is played abroad. Secondly, the players met up with new challenges as they played against highly talented and qualified players of international level,” says coach Seleman. “So this helps them to raise and build their expertise. It inspires them to feel that they can one day reach the levels of those higher ranked players they met at the event.”

“They have (previously) made history by becoming the first Tanzanian female wheelchair players to play in this event. It will make them like ambassadors to other young and upcoming players, as they will have a lot to share and teach them. It was a privilege to meet with greatly experienced players like the ones from Great Britain, who showed a lot of talent.

“The ITF has been of a great assistance to them because they come from under-privileged families and backgrounds. The grants they have been receiving from ITF has helped them achieve their dreams in big ways, since they would not have managed to do so on their own. It has also changed their lives in that they receive new friends who they can share and exchange positive ideas and advice with, which will help them become better players.

“Their lives have been changed in many ways, having been taken away from the poor conditions they come from to enabling them to have opportunities of earning and making a better living through the game of tennis.”