Wheelchair Tennis Masters 2023: Preview, draw, player list and how to watch
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One of the biggest wheelchair tennis events of any season - the NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters, is upon us, with eight days of competition between 30 October - 5 November in the Netherlands.
The ITF’s end-of-year wheelchair championships brings together the best players in the world to battle it out for the coveted titles across the men’s, women and quad divisions.
Find out who’s playing, where to watch and everything else you need to know about this year’s Wheelchair Masters.
When is the Wheelchair Masters 2023?
This year’s NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters get underway on 30 October, with the draw taking place on Saturday, 28 October.
Both tournaments are a week in length with the finals of the men’s, women’s and quad doubles events taking place on Saturday 4 November and the men’s women’s and quad singles finals on Sunday 5 November.
Where is the Wheelchair Masters 2023 being held?
The NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters will take place at the Emilio Sanchez Academy in Barcelona as the year-end championships are held on outdoor clay for the first time in the history of both events.
The Singles Masters has previously been held in Great Britain on several occasion - in London from 2014-16 and then at the Loughborough Tennis Centre in 2017.
Which British players are competing at the Wheelchair Masters 2023?
Four Brits line up for the ITF’s year-end wheelchair singles and doubles championships with Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid and Andy Lapthorne all contesting the Singles and Doubles Masters, while Lucy Shuker will contest the Doubles Masters alongside her American partner Dana Mathewson.
Singles Masters
Hewett became the youngest Singles Masters men’s champion in Loughborough in 2017 and he regained the title in Orlando in 2021. The world No.2, also the runner-up in Orlando in 2019 and in Oss in the Netherlands last year will be the second seed for the men’s singles this year and will aim to perform better and go further in the tournament than Japan’s world No.1 Tokito Oda if he is to overtake Oda to become year-end No.1 for the first time.
World No.6 and two-time runner-up Reid will return to the Singles Masters field for the first time since making the semi-finals in 2021, having not qualified for the event in 2022 during an injury-hit season.
Lapthorne is a four-time quad singles finalist at the Masters but will be aiming to lift the title for the first time in 2023.
Doubles Masters
Hewett and Reid are two-time Doubles Masters champions and are top seeds for the men’s doubles as they bid to complete a hat-trick of titles at the end of a season that has seen them extend their Grand Slam record to 18 titles together.
Shuker is a multiple Doubles Masters finalist, most recently in 2019 with Jordanne Whiley and she won the Doubles Masters title in 2016 alongside Dutchwoman Diede de Groot before partnering Dana Mathewson to the semi-finals in both 2017 and 2021. Shuker and Mathewson have won two ITF 1 titles together this season and will aim to be title contenders once again in Barcelona.
Lapthorne comes into this year’s Doubles Masters as a former two-time quad doubles champion, most recently when partnering fellow Brit Antony Cotterill to victory in 2016. He will end 2023 as he started it, pairing up with the USA’s David Wagner, with whom Lapthorne has won four Australian Open titles and two US Open titles in the last nine years.
When is the Wheelchair Masters 2023 draw?
The draws for both the singles and doubles events will take place on Saturday 28 October before the round-robin group matches begin on Monday 30 October.
How to watch the Wheelchair Masters 2023
Centre court matches will be streamed live on the ITF Website and on the Tennis Channel in the UK.
Live Scores for all matches will be available below:
