Breakwell and Ward get World Cup call up
THE LTA has announced the squad of wheelchair tennis players to represent Great Britain at the 2022 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Vilamoura, Portugal on May 2-8.
The squad will represent Great Britain across all four events contested at the International Tennis Federation’s flagship wheelchair tennis event, which is the wheelchair equivalent of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.
Included in the women’s team is Loughborough Town Tennis Club’s Abbie Breakwell and Dahnon Ward is in the team for the Junior Event.
GB has a long history of success in the World Team Cup, winning the men’s competition for the first time in 2015 before adding the title again in 2019, which brought the latest in a sequence of six successive medals – two gold, two silver and two bronze.
Ward leads Great Britain’s junior team in Portugal after he and Bartram were both members of the silver medalwinning junior team in both 2019 and 2021. Andrew Penney makes his Great Britain debut this year as the junior team bid for another medal. In world No.3 Ward and world No.5 Penney Great Britain has players who both contested the Junior Masters boys’ doubles final in Tarbes, France in January, where Ward and Bartram were the victors.
Speaking ahead of the event, the LTA’s Performance Support Lead and World Team Cup Team Lead Cain Berry, said: “We’re pleased to announce a strong squad for this year’s World Team Cup and are again delighted to name an exciting mixture of youth and experience from the pool of talented athletes on our performance pathway.
“As a nation we have a strong track record in the World Team Cup and look forward to building on that, whilst also utilising this year’s event to accelerate player development for the future.”