Solid Results for Canada at World Team Cup

June 18, 2007

With a berth in World Group 1 on the line, the Canadian men’s team faced off against Hungary on Sunday, the final day of the World Team Cup in Stockholm, Sweden.

In a tightly contested battle, Lee Carter kicked things off in style posting a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win over Caba Prohaska to give Canada the early edge. Yann Mathieu next took to the courts, falling 6-2, 6-2 at the hands of Laszlo Farkas. In the deciding match, Carter and Mathieu gave it everything they had, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Farkas and Prohaska, thus finishing fourth in World Group 2 and just missing out on an opportunity to contest World Group I in 2008.

Missing one of their most important members in Yuka Chokyu, the Canadian women’s squad headlined by Quebecers Helene Simard and Annie Morissette, finished a respectable 7^th in the World Group main draw after defeating Great Britain 2-1 in their final tie. The ladies also took out Brazil 3-0 in their opening match up of the event.

Sarah Hunter and Adrian Dieleman, Canada’s representatives in the quad division, also earned a 7^th place finish after upending Japan by 2-1 thanks to a three-set triumph in singles by Hunter over Sadahiro Kimura. Hunter then teamed up with Dieleman to win in doubles 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 over Shota Kawano and Ryuji Kakinokihara to earn the decisive second point.

The World Team Cup is the wheelchair equivalent of Davis Cup and Fed Cup for elite able-bodied players. The event was created in 1985 due to the growth of foreign participation in the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships. It began as a warm-up tournament prior to the US Open and today has become one of the biggest events on the wheelchair tennis calendar with more than 300 players competing each year.