Norfolk heads Great Britain squad for World Team Cup
SubscribeThe Tennis Foundation 20 July 2009
Two-time Paralympic quad singles champion Peter Norfolk OBE heads a squad of 13 players selected to represent Great Britain in the 25th Anniversary Invacare World Team Cup, the International Tennis Federation’s annual flagship wheelchair tennis team event, which begins at the City of Nottingham Tennis Centre on Monday, 27 July, backed by UK Sport’s National Lottery funded World Class Events Programme.
Current world number one Norfolk is joined in the Great Britain team for the quad event in Nottingham by his Beijing Paralympic quad doubles bronze medal-winning partner, Jamie Burdekin, and Andrew Lapthorne. The trio are all ranked inside the world’s top 12 in the quad singles rankings and, like Norfolk, Burdekin and Lapthorne also have winning form against world top 10 opponents this season. Norfolk has already tasted Invacare World Team Cup success, having helped Great Britain to back-to-back Invacare World Team Cup quad titles in 2001 and 2002.
Norfolk is one of two world number one ranked players in the Great Britain squad for this year’s Invacare World Team Cup, an event often referred to as the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis. Jordanne Whiley has also been ranked number one in the junior girls’ singles rankings since January. A member of the Great Britain team that won the Invacare World Team Cup junior title in Sweden in 2007, 17-year-old Whiley made her senior women’s debut for Great Britain at the 2008 Invacare World Team Cup in Italy and joins British number one and recent Wimbledon women’s wheelchair doubles finalist, Lucy Shuker, and 18-year-old Louise Hunt.
As well as Whiley, the 2007 Great Britain team that won the junior title also included Gordon Reid and David Phillipson. Reid and Phillipson went on to help steer Great Britain to the Men’s World Group 2 title in 2008, as both players made their Great Britain senior men’s debuts. In doing so, Great Britain earned promotion back to World Group One for this year’s event, regaining a place among the elite group of 16 nations for the first time since 2006. Currently British men’s number one, 17-year-old Reid has spent most of 2009 as the world number one ranked junior boys’ singles player before recently slipping to number two.
Reid’s fellow Scot Kevin Simpson was also a member of last year’s World Group Two winning team and joins Reid and Phillipson again, while Invacare World Team Cup debutant Marc McCarroll completes a talented four-strong men’s team.
After winning the Invacare World Team Cup junior title in 2007, Great Britain finished runners-up in last year’s event. Fifteen-year-old Philip Cochrane, currently the world number four ranked junior, returns to lead the Great Britain junior team again this year and is joined by team mates and Invacare World Team Cup debutants Dermot Bailey and Joshua Steels.
Dawn Newbery, Great Britain Team Manager for the 25th Invacare World Team Cup, said: “The Invacare World Team Cup is the biggest wheelchair tennis event in Britain this side of the London 2012 Paralympics and therefore the most important opportunity our players have to compete for their country on home soil this side of 2012.
"Building on the successes of Athens and Beijing and some excellent British successes on the wheelchair tennis circuit, we have a strong squad this year and after winning World Group Two last year our men’s team are aiming for a top eight finish in World Group One. Meanwhile, both our women’s and quad teams will be looking for top four finishes amid some strong opposition.”
Peter Norfolk said: "It's very exciting to play the 25th Invacare World Team Cup on home soil and such a momentous occasion. It's very much a different pressure playing for your country, and I’m sure we as a squad can rise to the challenge and deliver. It's probably the biggest challenge this side of 2012 and it will certainly help get us ready for London."
UK Sport Events Consultant, Clare Hartley, said: “UK Sport are delighted to be supporting the Invacare World Team Cup. This event will provide the British players with an opportunity to experience world class competition in front of home crowds ahead of 2012, as well as a chance for the sport to train officials and volunteers in preparation for the home Games.”
A total of 187 players from 33 nations are set to contest the 25th Invacare World Team Cup, which includes men’s World Group One, men’s World Group Two, women’s, quad and junior events.
The 25th Invacare World Team Cup is the climax to a two week festival of international wheelchair tennis at the City of Nottingham Tennis Centre, which begins on Monday, 20 July when the 20th British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships gets underway.
