Great Britain boys' wheelchair tennis team earn historic World Team Cup victory

Barton, 15, and Knoesen, 13, both members of the LTA’s National Age Group Programme for wheelchair players aged 18 and Under, beat Japan 2-0 in Sunday’s final to complete a dominant week.

 

Sunday’s victory brought both players their second successive World Team Cup junior gold medals after they were both members of the Great Britain team that triumphed in Antalya, Turkey in 2025 when competing alongside their senior counterparts.

 

The two-player Great Britain boys’ team remained unbeaten in 13 ties and 26 matches against teams from Argentina, Japan, the Netherlands and the USA, defeating the USA 2-0 in Saturday’s semi-finals before repeating their earlier round-robin group victory over Japan.

 

This year, as wheelchair tennis celebrates its 50th Anniversary, junior players now have their own standalone boys’ and girls’ competitions under the umbrella of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup, which is the wheelchair equivalent of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.

 

Barton and Knoesen now stay in Europe this week as they prepare for the French Open Junior Wheelchair Championships, which begins on Thursday at Roland Garros.

 

Barton, who will make his junior Grand Slam tournament debut in Paris this week, said: “To win back-to-back World Team Cup titles is brilliant and to do it without even dropping a set this year makes the sense of achievement feel much greater than last year. It’s great to have our own standalone World Team Cup event and to know that I’ve got the game on the clay surface to take into Roland Garros gives me a lot of confidence for the French Open.”

 

Knoesen, runner-up in the boys’ singles and doubles at January’s Australian Open, said: “To be the first standalone boys’ World Team Cup champions, especially in the 50th Anniversary year of wheelchair tennis, is very special. But more than that, to be around the team and feel like I’ve been able to contribute so much to the team with my wins on court and my style of play, I’ve really thrived in this environment. It’s given me a huge confidence boost going into Roland Garros. “

 

Barton beat Ariyu Yoshida 6-2, 6-2 in Sunday’s World Team Cup final before Knoesen defeated Hirofumi Inoue 6-1, 7-5 to give Great Britain an unassailable lead, with the doubles match that had been a compulsory requirement for the group phase of the competition not played.

 

The Great Britan boys’ team were guided by first-time World Team Cup Captain, Luke Mulvhill, who has recently been appointed by the LTA as Junior Wheelchair National Coach on the Wheelchair Performance Pathway.

 

Meanwhile, the Great Britain girls’ team of Lucy Foyster and Ellen Tribley, guided by Captain Merel de Vries, each earned their first Great Britain match wins on their respective World Team Cup debuts. The team finished fifth after beating Brazil in one of five round-robin ties during a historic week when a standalone girls’ World Team Cup draw was contested for the first time.

 

Great Britain Team Lead Matt Grover, the LTA’s Wheelchair Talent Pathway Manager, said: “To achieve what we have this week, and in the 50th Anniversary year for wheelchair tennis, is something really special and something that Great Britain can be very proud of. The girls are rightly very proud of themselves after their debut World Team Cup wins and also pushing other players and teams. To now have a standalone girls’ World Team Cup shows the breadth and depth and of our sport and highlights the opportunities to get more girls into sport. The team morale this week has been excellent.”