Team Wins Fifth All-Time Title, First in Seven Years at BNP Paribas World Team Cup

For the first time in seven years, the U.S. juniors are BNP Paribas World Team Cup champions after winning the title over the weekend to conclude this year’s competition at the Megasaray Club Belek in Antalya, Turkey.

On Sunday, the American squad, comprised of returning players Charlie Cooper (La Quinta, Calif.), Tomas Majetic (Boulder, Colo.), Max Wong (Flushing, N.Y.), and rookie Sabina Czauz (Thornton, Colo.), secured the Americans’ fifth all-time title with a flawless 2-0 victory over Australia. The championship match mirrored their earlier encounter in the group stage. Majetic dominated the opening match with a commanding 6-0, 6-3 victory over Jin Woodman (having previously won 6-1, 6-3 in the round-robin stage), while Cooper sealed the victory with a decisive 6-2, 6-1 win over Benjamin Wenzel (having previously triumphed 6-4, 6-2). The doubles match was not contested.

“These kids came in and I think a lot of people thought they would be one of the favorites even though they were the No. 6 seed,” said Coach Kevin Heim. “To actually get to the point where we won, I think it exceeded all of my expectations. I think the biggest celebration of the entire week was that everyone got a chance to play multiple matches and contributed wins. This was a team victory, and top to bottom, they all did really well.”

The triumph of the American team in 2017 marked the culmination of a remarkable era, securing their third consecutive title from 2015 to 2017. However, this year’s victory carries a special significance, symbolizing the end of a challenging journey towards redemption for the squad. Following their reign of dominance, the U.S. opted not to participate in the junior team events in 2018 and 2019. Their return to competition saw them face adversity, finishing at the bottom of the eight-team field in 2021 and slightly improving to seventh place in 2022. Yet, the turning point came last year when the team showcased remarkable resilience. They emerged victorious in their pool matches and advanced all the way to the final showdown. In a gripping finale, Joshua Johns and Ruben Harris clinched the title for the British team, narrowly defeating Charlie Cooper and Tomas Majetic in a thrilling winner-take-all doubles match, with a scoreline of 7-5, 7-6(2). This hard-fought victory granted the Brits the long-awaited gold medal, after being runners-up in the preceding two years.

This year, they went 3-0 (9-0 in matches) in round-robin play against Australia, Great Britain and the Netherlands, and in particular, lost just 12 games in six sets in a rematch of last year’s final. In their five ties in the week overall, the Americans lost just one match in 14 played (the doubles against Brazil in the semifinals, which played no role in the outcome of the result, as the Americans had already clinched the match).

“Coming into this year we put in a lot of work,” Cooper, 16, said after the match. “We had that one goal in mind of getting gold, so we all knew that it would take all four of us to get it done and we had to believe in each other and stay humble. We had to put a lot of work in and I couldn’t be happier to get it done here in Turkey.”

The World Team Cup is the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis event. The inaugural event in California in 1985 involved six men’s teams. The women’s competition began the following year, with quad and junior events introduced in 1998 and 2000, respectively. The event has experienced continued growth since.

In other action the United States quad team of David Wagner (Walla Walla, Wash./San Diego, Calif.), Andrew Bogdanov (Prescott, Ariz.), and Hunter Groce (San Antonio) finished in fifth place. The men’s team finished in seventh.

The USTA was officially designated by the USOPC as the national governing body for the Paralympic sport of wheelchair tennis in June 2002, becoming the first Olympic national governing body to earn this recognition. As the national governing body for wheelchair tennis, the USTA manages wheelchair tennis in the United States, including the sanctioning of tournaments, overseeing wheelchair rankings, creating and managing a high-performance program for developing elite disabled athletes, and selecting teams to compete internationally for the United States.