On Thursday, the world’s greatest wheelchair tennis players will take to the hard courts of Flushing Meadows to compete in the 2018 US Open Wheelchair Competition, presented by Deloitte.
In its 11th edition, the US Open Wheelchair Competition first began in 2005, and features six events, including men’s, women’s and quad divisions, with singles and doubles action in all three categories.
This year’s field will feature 18 of the Top 20 wheelchair tennis athletes from around the globe, including the Top 8 men, Top 7 women and Top 3 quad players. Players were selected based on their ITF rankings as of July 16, with one wild card being awarded for each event.
For the second year, play will kick off on Arthur Ashe court, with men’s and women’s doubles.
First on Ashe will see Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez pair up with world No. 1 and five-time US Open Champion Shingo Kunieda of Japan to take on the No. 2 doubles seed, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, both of Great Britain, who have won the Wimbledon wheelchair men’s double titles three times, including in 2018.
After the men’s singles, USA’s Dana Mathewson and Aniek Van Koot — who were doubles partners at the US Open in 2017 — will be on opposite sides of the court, playing each other in mixed doubles. Mathewson will pair up with South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane to take on the No. 2-seeded team of Van Koot and Marjolein Buis.
For the first time, wheelchair tennis will take to the brand new Louis Armstrong stadium, where the No. 1 doubles team of Stephane Houdet, the reigning men’s singles champion at the US Open, and France’s Nicolas Peifer, will take on Belgium’s Joachim Gerard and Sweden’s Stefan Olsson.
The No. 1 women’s doubles team of Diede De Groot of the Netherlands and Japan’s Yui Kamiji will face off against Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock and Great Britain’s Lucy Shuker.
Quad singles action will start on Thursday. Three-time US Open Wheelchair Competition quad singles champion and eight-time finalist David Wagner will begin his campaign for his fourth title in New York. He will first face Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne, with whom he took the quad doubles titles with in 2018.
US Open wild card recipient Bryan Barten will face a tough first-round battle against Australia’s Dylan Alcott in the first round of singles in the quad division.
Wheelchair men’s and women’s singles play will commence on Friday, Sept. 7th.
