'When I'm on the tennis court I don't even notice I have a disability'
When you’re just five tournaments into your international wheelchair tennis career, winning your first BNP Paribas World Team Cup match for your country is a big deal.
And so it was for Andrew Bogdanov on Monday as USA beat Turkey 2-1 in Pool A of the quad World Group at Vilamoura Tennis and Padel Academy. Bogdanov is one of two USA players making their World Team Cup debuts this year, but having a World Team Cup legend on your side of the net is an obvious benefit.
“I’m extremely happy,” said 28-year-old Bogdanov. “I didn't sleep last night because of a mixture of jet lag and excitement, so today I've been very fatigued and I think it was a smart move for me to not to play singles to save energy for doubles. And I was really, really looking forward to playing with David Wagner just because of his history, his successful career and knowledge and it was better than I expected.”
The gulf in experience between Bogdanov and Wagner is as wide as it possibly could be. Bogdanov played his first tournament in February and has already risen significantly in the quad singles rankings, while Wagner’s decorated career of more than 20 years has seen the former world No. 1 play a central role in USA amassing a record nine World Team Cup quad titles.
After two one-sided singles matches, with Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan beating Steven Baxter 6-1 6-0 and Wagner defeating Ugur Altinel 6-1 6-1, the combination of Bogdanov and Wagner won the deciding doubles against Altinel and Kaplan 6-3 6-3.
“He's a really good partner. The whole time he's really encouraging and uplifting and so it was good,” added Bogdanov, a keen sportsman from the age of four before a snowboarding accident nine years ago changed the course of his life.
“We flowed well and we communicated well and, you know, especially for my first World Team Cup match I really wanted to get a win. I knew it was going to be tough. Turkey have a lot of really good up and coming players and I knew that I was going to get a lot of balls because of being the weaker player. I’m not saying that I'm not a good tennis player, but Wagner is just incredible so obviously given his success and how good of an athlete he is, it's just the smart thing to do to hit to me a lot. So, I knew I was going to get a lot of balls and I was happy that I was able to hold my own and handle it well and pulled out the win.”
A World Team Cup match-winning player he might now be, but for Bogdanov wheelchair tennis has many other attractions.
“I got in a snowboarding accident and that obviously changed my life, but I knew that I still wanted to stay active and so sports is a way for me to have like a therapy,” he said. “When I'm out on the tennis court I don't even notice that I have a disability. I'm just playing sports like any other able-bodied person, which is so special and so great.
Also in Pool A of the quad World Group top seeds Netherlands beat South Africa 3-0 in a rematch between last year’s finalists and two teams who also met in Group A last year before finishing first and second and going on to win their respective semi-finals.
Pool B began with seconds seeds Brazil defeating World Team Cup debutants Thailand 3-0, while four-time champions Israel beat 2019 champions Japan 3-0, with Israel now going on to play Brazil.
Great Britain men among those off to comfortable pool wins
The seven round-robin ties in the men’s World Group saw Great Britain outclass Chile in Pool B, the Brits earning a 3-0 win without dropping a game in either singles or doubles before going on to Tuesday’s tie against Poland, who defeated Brazil 2-1.
Pool C opened with Spain, finalists for the last two years, defeating Morocco 2-1, while Israel beat South Africa 3-0.
Defending champions Netherlands beat host nation Portugal 3-0 in Pool D, with USA defeating Sri Lanka 3-0 after Casey Ratzlaff and Conner Stroud, winners of the two singles matches, edged the doubles against Suresh Dharmasena and Gamini Dissanayake 6-7(6) 6-3 (10-8) after a deciding match tie-break.
With just three teams in Pool A, the opening tie of the pool saw eight-time champions France beat Malaysia 3-0.
The opening exchanges in the junior World Group saw USA ease past Brazil 3-0 in Pool A, while second seeds Great Britain beat France 3-0 in Pool B and Netherlands defeated Belgium 3-0 after Xavier Donker held on to beat Alexander Lantermann 6-4 1-6 7-5 in the opening singles match.