Lexus GB World Team Cup quad team qualify for 2024 World Group in Turkey
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Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade completed a dominant week for the Lexus GB World Team Cup Team at their European Qualification quad event in Latvia after a 2-0 victory over Germany on Sunday sealed Great Britain’s return to the quad World Group of eight elite nations.
World No.7 Lapthorne, a three-time World Team Cup quad champion at the wheelchair equivalent of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup had just one previous win over Maximillian Laudan on his career activity coming into Sunday’s second singles match against German twin brothers.
However, the British No.1 proved even more dominant in their second and latest encounter and faced only one game point against him in the entire match before closing out a 6-0, 6-0 victory in just 42 minutes.
Lapthorne said: “It’s really good to get the job done and advance to the main event in Turkey in May, where we will be looking to do the same again.”
Lapthorne’s power and accuracy proved far too much as he and Slade beat Maximillian and Marcus Laudan, respectively, for the fourth straight sets wins of the week for either player, with Great Britian also beating both Sweden and France 3-0 in the round-robin group phase of the competition and Turkey 2-0 in Saturday’s semi-finals.
Coming into the event as the No.1 seeds puts a lot of pressure on our shoulders, but the entire team managed it remarkably well.
British number two Slade dropped serve just twice in Sunday’s second set of his opening 6-0, 6-2 win over Marcus Laudan and, like Lapthorne, he finished with a sublime forehand winner that underlined the British dominance.
He said: “Coming into the event as the number one seeds puts a lot of pressure on our shoulders, but the entire team managed it remarkably well.
"Everyone played their part as Lappo (Lapthorne’s nickname) and I played through the singles, with Gary and Ollie proving a dominant team in the doubles to gain their first senior wins for Great Britan. It would be wrong not to mention our team captain Alex (Cockram), who guided us calmly through our matches and helped create a really special team environment.”
Both round-robin group victories against Sweden and France earlier in the week were completed by doubles wins for Oliver Cox and Gary Cox, with 17-year-old Oliver making his Great Britain senior debut against Sweden to become LTA Colour Holder No.325.
The European Qualification victory means that Great Britain will have a full complement of men’s, women’s, quad and junior teams at the 2024 BNP Paribas World Team Cup World Group in Antalya, Turkey on 7-12 May.
