U.S. Wheelchair Team Announced for World Team Cup in Sardinia

The red, white and blue will fly proudly on the Italian coast later this week as Team USA sends men's, women's, quad and junior wheelchair tennis teams to compete at the annual BNP Paribas World Team Cup, the flagship international competition of wheelchair tennis. 

Just four weeks after representing Team USA in Tokyo, all seven of Team USA's most recent Paralympians will again don the national colors at the World Team Cup: Shelby Baron, Bryan Barten, Emmy Kaiser, Dana Mathewson, Casey Ratzlaff, Conner Stroud and David Wagner. Joining them to round out the senior teams are Nick Taylor (quad) and Chris Herman and Jason Keatseangsilp (men's), while the co-ed junior team will be represented by Charlie Cooper (La Quinta, Calif.), Gaila Fosbinder (Charlotte, N.C.), Maylee Phelps (Portland, Ore.) and Max Wong (Flushing, N.Y.). The last quartet is Team USA's first junior team in the competition since 2017, when it won the last of three straight titles. 

A total of 24 countries, and the Russian Tennis Federation, will take part in the 2021 competition in the four divisions, broken up as follows: women’s (12 nations), quad (8 nations), men’s (16 nations) and junior (8 nations). Like its counterparts in the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup, the BNP Paribas World Team Cup will see all four divisions first play in a round-robin group format before the top nations in each group advance to the knockout stages to compete for medals.

The inaugural BNP Paribas World Team Cup was held in California in 1985 involving six men’s teams. The women’s competition began the following year, with quad and junior events introduced in 1998 and 2000, respectively. Team USA's best combined result in recent history came in 2003, when the men's, women's and junior teams all reached the final, and the quad team defeated Great Britain, 2-1, to win the title.

Coupled with the team announcement, the USTA also unveiled the new logos which will be used for all things Team USA at various team events: BNP Paribas World Team Cup, Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup. The logos will be used on all things branded for each discipline.