Brits Gordon Reid, Jordanne Whiley and Andy Lapthorne are among the 20 players that have been confirmed today by the International Tennis Federation as having qualified for the 2014 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 26 - 30 November.

It will be the third successive year that there has been at least one Brit among each of the top eight men, the top eight women and the top four quad players for the ITF’s year-end singles championship.

Hosted by the Tennis Foundation for the first time, the 2014 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters sees the world’s best players return to the venue that hosted the London 2012 Paralympic Tennis Event, bringing back special memories for Whiley and Lapthorne, who both won doubles medals at the Games.

“It will be so good to be back at the place where I won my bronze with Lucy (Shuker) in such thrilling circumstances in 2012 and after reaching the last four last year I'm excited to see what the Masters holds for me this year,” said Whiley, who made history on her NEC Masters debut in California in 2013, becoming the first Brit to reach the women’s singles semi-finals. “I hope that we will have lots of fans cheering us Brits on once again, just like we had at the Paralympics, and that that will inspire me to another personal best performance.”

Japan’s Yui Kamiji also made history at the 2013 NEC Masters, becoming the first non-Dutch player to win the women’s singles title in the event’s 20 year history.

Kamiji has since become the world No. 1 and while the 20-year-old heads the eight women’s qualifiers, fellow Japanese player Shingo Kunieda heads the men’s entries and the USA’s David Wagner heads the quad entries, both world No. 1s having retained NEC Masters titles in 2013.

After completing back-to-back victories in 2013, Kunieda is one of three past champions in the men’s field alongside French world No. 2 Stephane Houdet and world No. 6 Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands. Reid qualifies for the NEC Masters for the third successive year, doing so this year as the world No. 3 behind Kunieda and Houdet and having claimed his latest title just yesterday at the Open de la Baie de Somme in France.

World No. 9 Takashi Sanada will make his NEC Wheelchair Tenns Masters debut after the withdrawal of world No. 8 Takuya Miki due to injury.

The world’s current top two in the women’s singles are also previous champions, world No. 2 Jiske Griffioen having continued the Dutch success in 2012 as she became the first player to become NEC Masters champion after the 14-year reign of the now-retired Esther Vergeer before finishing runner-up to Kamiji in 2013.

Wagner is the only one of the four players at the top of the quad singles rankings to have previously won the NEC Masters title, while world No. 2 Lapthorne and world No. 3 Lucas Sithole of South Africa have both finished runner-up to the six-time champion over the last two years.

Tickets for the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters can be purchased here.

World rankings as of 6th October 2014