Silver lining for Loughborough wheelchair tennis youngsters
WARD AND JOHNS HELP GB FINISH SECOND IN WORLD TEAM CUP EVENT
TWO Loughborough Lawn Tennis Club members helped Great Britain’s junior wheelchair tennis team win silver at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Vilamoura, Portugal, writes Marshall Thomas.
Dahnon Ward, 16, of Kegworth, and fellow club member Joshua Johns were part of the GB squad at the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event.
With Great Britain represented in all four championship events – men, women, quad and junior – at the wheelchair tennis equivalent of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup, GB’s women also exceed their preevent seeding with a sixth place finish.
The GB junior team were unbeaten in four successive ties and 11 singles or doubles matches ahead of the final against Australia.
After being a member of the two teams that took Australia and Japan to deciding doubles matches in the last two junior World Team Cup finals in 2019 and 2021, Ward hoped the outcome would be a gold medal this year,
Ward, a student at Loughborough College, and Johns split the first two singles matches with Australia’s Riley Dumsday and Saalim Naser.
But Dumsday and Naser fought back from 4-2 down in the second set of the doubles to win 6-1 6-4 and give Australia the title 2-1.
“We’ve had another successful World Team Cup campaign, with the highlight being a third successive medal for our Great Britain junior team,” said Rob Cross, head coach of the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis performance Pathway.
“The boys are obviously disappointed not to win the gold medal this year after two silver medals in each of the last two World Team Cups, but they have gained valuable experience ahead of trying to go one better next year.”
GB’s men eased to victory in their fifth-place play-off as Norfolk duo Alfie Hewett and Ben Bartram both won both their singles matches for a 2-0 win over Malaysia.
World No.1 Hewett beat Abu Samah Borhan 6-3 6-1 and 16-yearold world No.2 ranked junior Bartram defeated Yusshazwan Yusoff
Mohamad 6-2 6-1 as Great Britain, seeded sixth, ended with only a 2-1 loss to eventual champions the Netherlands denying them a place in the semi-finals.
GB’s women’s team were also denied a place in the semi-finals after losing out to top seeds and 32-time champions the Netherlands in their decisive round-robin group match.
A 2-1 victory over Brazil earned Cornelia Oosthuizen, Loughborough-based Abbie Breakwell and Ruby Bishop a fifth-place play-off against France, but the fourth seeds won to leave Great Britain in sixth.
Cross added: “With a squad of players that was missing some of our
Paralympic medallists, we leave Portugal with three of our four teams having qualified directly for next year’s World Team Cup.
“Our men’s and women’s teams, both of which included players making their senior Great Britain debuts at the World Team Cup finals, exceeded their event seedings of six and seven, respectively.
“There is much to be proud of as we look forward to a bright future.”
Great Britain’s quad team finished seventh in their event.
This means they will provisionally need to qualify for the 2023 World Team Cup despite beating second seeds and nine-time champions USA in this year’s competition.