Colombia will have a team contesting the quad World Group at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup for the first time when the 2025 edition of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event takes place in Antalya, Turkiye, in May.

With the regional qualifications for the 2025 BNP Paribas World Team Cup now past their midpoint, Colombia and Morocco secured double successes at each of the Americas and African qualifications, respectively.

Meanwhile, Brazil won the women’s draw at the Americas Qualification to earn an immediate return to the women’s World Group after missing out on earning a direct entry following their 10th place finish in Turkiye in 2024.

Colombia’s quad and men’s teams seal qualification victory in Ecuador

Albeiro Moreno and Daniel Campaz helped steer third seeds Colombia to an historic victory in the combined quad draw for teams from the Americas and Asian regions in Cuenca, Ecuador, claiming each of their singles matches in straight sets in 3-0 wins over Chinese Taipei, Peru and host nation, Ecuador.

However, it was Colombia’s second round-robin tie of the week against top seeds Japan that ultimately proved the pivotal result as Colombia came from 1-0 down to prevail in the deciding doubles match after Daisuke Ishito beat Moreno 2-6 6-4 6-2 to give Japan an early lead.

Campaz subsequently levelled the contest after defeating Kei Usami 6-4 6-2 and then partnered Moreno to beat Ishito and Usami 7-5 6-3 and give Colombia the 2-1 victory that saw the South American team end the week with four wins from four ties.

Colombia’s men’s team similarly ended the week with four wins from their four-round-robin ties against Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay as Luigy Nieves, Manuel Sanchez and Diego Pirachican all contributed to steering the top seeds to unassailable 2-0 leads after the singles matches in each tie.

Only Peru managed to take a doubles match to deny Colombia a perfect set of 3-0 victories as Colombia won the men’s draw at the Americas Qualification for the third time since 2015.

The women’s draw saw Brazil also emerge victorious at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup Americas Qualification for the third time since 2016 after the top seeds earned 3-0 wins over Ecuador and Peru without dropping a set in either tie as Meirycoll Duval, Jade Lanai and Vitoria Miranda all contributed to singles victories.

However, it was Brazil’s final tie of the week that guaranteed their return to the BNP Paribas World Team Cup women’s World Group, despite being denied a perfect record of match wins by Chile’s No.1 Macarena Cabrillana.

Cabrillana fought back from a set down to beat reigning Australian Open junior champion Miranda 4-6 6-2 6-1 to take Chile’s crucial contest against Brazil to a deciding doubles match, but Duval and Lanai took the doubles comfortably 6-3 6-1 to wrap up Brazil’s 2-1 win and a third victory in their three round-robin ties.

Morocco double up at African Qualification in Rabat

Morocco’s men’s and women’s teams made the most of home advantage in Rabat as Morocco’s men’s wheelchair tennis team earned victory at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup African Qualification for the fourth time since 2016 and the women’s team won their regional qualification event for the second time since 2020.

Plenty has happened since the Moroccan women’s team triumphed at the 2020 African Qualification in Nairobi, defeating host nation Kenya 2-0 in the final after both teams had had finished unbeaten in their respective round-robin groups.

On that occasion Morocco were denied the opportunity of taking their chance in the World Group after the climax of the ITF’s annual flagship wheelchair tennis team event was cancelled due to the global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But, five years on, a team once again led by African Para Games gold medallists Najwa Awane and Samira Benichi proved just as dominant after negotiating a five-way round-robin draw with 11 straight sets match wins and with just Morocco’s doubles match against Nigeria going to a deciding match tie-break, again resulting in victory for the host nation as Tanzania lived up to their second seeding to take runners-up honours.

The men’s qualification draw brought a similarly comfortable victory for top seeds Morocco after easing through their round-robin group with 3-0 victories over Rwanda and Kenya, defeating Ghana 3-0 for the loss of just one game in the semi-finals and beating Egypt 3-0 for the loss of just five games in the final.

Said Himam and Fouad Boughnim steered the host nation to unassailable leads after the two singles matches during the round-robin group stage before both players combined with Moroccan No. 1 Lhaj Boukartacha to set up unassailable leads in both the semi-final and final.