World Team Cup: Netherlands kicks off quest for 30th title

Netherlands opened their bid for a remarkable 30th victory in the wheelchair tennis BNP Paribas World Team Cup women’s event with a routine 3-0 victory over Argentina on home soil on the first day of play (28 May) in Apeldoorn.

Aniek van Koot, Diede de Groot and Michaela Spaanstra dropped just six games between the two singles and the doubles as Netherlands swept past Argentina, the winner of the Americas qualification earlier this year.

Great Britain (vs. Thailand), Japan (vs. Kenya) and France (vs. South Korea) also secured early 3-0 wins in the round-robin phase of the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event.

Better start for Argentina's men

While Argentina’s women’s team had a tough time against Netherlands, the Argentina men’s team made up of Gustavo Fernandez and Agustin Ledesma made a winning start to their campaign by beating Austria 3-0.

In an enticing Pool D contest, Argentina next plays Belgium, which achieved a comfortable 3-0 victory over the USA, the winner of this year’s Americas qualification event.

Top seed Great Britain and European qualification winner Spain also both registered 3-0 wins in Pool A, against Poland and China, respectively.

In Pool B, Japan recorded a relatively comfortable 3-0 victory over Brazil and South Korea beat Thailand 2-1.

Pool C opened with reigning World Team Cup champion France and former champions Netherlands both sealing 3-0 wins over Australia and Morocco, respectively.

Past champions win in quad event

Past champions Australia (vs. South Africa), Great Britain (vs the Netherlands), Israel (vs. Japan) and USA (vs. Canada) all began the quad event by winning their opening pool ties.

Full results are available on the ITF's website.