Five things to know ahead of 2025 BNP Paribas World Team Cup
The 2025 BNP Paribas World Team Cup (6-11 May) gets underway in just a few days with the opening ceremony of the latest edition of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event taking place on Monday evening at Club Ali Bey Manavgat in Antalya, Turkiye. Six days of competition will then take place.
Here are five things to know ahead of wheelchair tennis’s equivalent of Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge and Davis Cup:
• All of the biggest star names within wheelchair tennis have played for their countries at the World Team Cup over the past 40 years and one of the biggest star names of all, Diede de Groot, is set to make her competitive return to wheelchair tennis in Antalya. ‘Diede The Great’ has been absent from the world’s tennis courts since winning two silver medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event, the 28-year-old six-time ITF World Champion having amassed a 145-match winning streak stretching back to February 2021 before a rare loss in the women’s final at last year’s World Team Cup.
• While Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge has had Serena and Venus Williams and the Davis Cup has had Bob and Mike Bryan among its famous siblings, this year’s BNP Paribas World Team Cup has something of a first with sisters Saki Takamuro and Yuma Takamuro both selected for Japan’s women’s team. Yuma makes her debut in the World Group this year, having played a key role alongside Yui Kamiji, in Japan’s dominance at this year’s Asian Qualification. Saki will make her third her World Team Cup appearance for Japan.
• Since its inception in 1985 in Irvine, California, the World Team Cup World Group has been staged in 20 countries over the last 40 years, encompassing Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. When this year’s host Turkiye first staged the World Team Cup in 2010, Turkiye was the 15th different host nation.
• Today’s World Team Cup World Group event features four different draws - one each for men, women, quad division players and juniors. Just six men’s teams took part in the inaugural World Team Cup in 1985. A women’s event took place for the first time in 1986, with just two teams, while the quad event was introduced in 1998 and the junior event was held for the first time in 2000.
• The record for the most World Team Cup titles won by any one national team is 33, with Netherlands having won the women’s title 33-times between 1986 and 2023. USA have won the most men’s titles since 1985, having been victorious on nine occasions, with USA also holding the record for most quad tiles with nine victories. The most successful nation in the junior event is Netherlands, having won the junior title on eight occasions.