BNP Paribas World Team Cup: Japan earn fourth men's title since 2003
Japan won their fourth BNP Paribas World Team Cup men’s title since 2017 on the sixth and last day of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event, defeating sixth seeds Chile 2-0 in Antalya to add to their previous titles in 2003, 2007 and 2018.
On the face of it, a 2-0 victory might sound simple enough, but the early stages of Takuya Miki’s victory over Brayan Tapia in the opening singles match were far from simple as 27-year-old Tapia won the first five points of the contest and soon turned that into the first five games.
With Tapia having never taken more than four games off Miki in any of the four previous sets he’d played against the Japanese No.2, a 5-0 lead was a startling turn of events, but while Tapia went on to take the opening set there were signs of Miki slowly finding his rhythm.
The 36-year-old world No.9 made a much brighter start to the second set and, while Tapia continued to pose problems for his higher-ranked opponent, they were met by a more composed Miki, who went on to wrap up a 3-6 6-2 6-2 victory.
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Tapia and Alexander Cataldo have been the architects of a second successive personal best World Team Cup performance for Chile’s men’s team, who finished fifth in Antalya in 2024. However, Cataldo’s resilience proved to be no match for world No. 1 and reigning Paralympic champion Tokito Oda in the second singles match.
Oda produced a much more assured performance than in Japan’s semi-final win over Great Britain and he despatched Cataldo 6-1 6-2 to make it four men’s titles for Japan and a personal first men’s title for himself four years after steering Japan to the junior title.
Having taken a set off Oda for the first time during Britain’s semi-final against Japan, Ben Bartram completed his week in Antalya in fine form as he and Dahnon Ward, members of Great Britain’s gold medal-winning team in 2024, defeated France 2-0 to earn the bronze medal this year.