Bingham’s David Phillipson is among a three-strong Great Britain men’s wheelchair tennis team selected this week by the Tennis Foundation for the 2013 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkey from 20 – 26 May.
The 24-year-old two-time Paralympian has a history of success representing Great Britain in the annual Davis-Cup style competition and his selection comes on the back of the Nottinghamshire athlete being one of four players, including his World Team Cup team mate Marc McCarroll, who showcased wheelchair tennis on Sunday at Great Britain’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas tie against Russia in Coventry.
Scotland’s Gordon Reid, currently completing in South Africa, will join Phillipson and McCarroll in GB’s BNP Paribas World Team Cup men’s team in Turkey.
“I’ve got some great World Team Cup memories, from GB winning the junior event in Sweden in 2007 to then being a member of the men’s team that won World Group 2 in Italy a year later to earn promotion back to World Group 1,” said Phillipson. “This is the second time in four years that Antalya has hosted the event and last time we were in Turkey in 2010 GB were semi-finalists in World Group 1, so hopefully we can produce a big performance once again.
"Wheelchair tennis is a really exciting sport to watch and hopefully some of the crowd from Coventry will come along and support us against the world's top players in July when we play at the British Open in Nottingham," added British No.3 Phillipson, who partnered Kettering's Dermot Bailey to play a tie-break against McCarroll and world No. 1 ranked junior Alfie Hewett in Coventry on Sunday before the final two singles rubbers. “Now it’s back to training hard before my next individual tournament in Israel at the end of the month and getting together for some team training before we go to Turkey.”
Phillipson recently opened his 2013 season by reaching the men’s singles final and winning the men’s doubles title in Sheffield, at Britain’s first world ranking event of the year.
“Along with the trio of men’s players that have been selected this time, I have some tremendous memories from the World Team Cup and am confident that David, Marc and Gordon will do us proud again in Turkey this year,” said Karen Ross, Captain of the GB World Team Cup Men’s Team.