Florida Players, Coach Named to National WheelChair Tennis Team for World Team Cup

Players Mackenzie Soldan (Orlando, Fla.) and Chris Herman (Gulfport, Fla.), and coach Paul Walker (Lakeland, Fla.) were Floridians named to represent the United States at the 2019 BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

The nation’s top wheelchair tennis players will compete against participants from around the globe on May 13-18, 2019, at the Larry and Mary Greenspon Israel Tennis Centre in Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

The compete teams:

Women’s Team

Paul Walker, coach (Lakeland, Fla.)
Shelby Baron (Honolulu)
Dana Mathewson (San Diego)
Mackenzie Soldan (Orlando, Fla.)

Quad Team

John Devorss, coach (Portland, Ore.)
Bryan Barten (Tucson, Ariz.)
Greg Hasterok (Chula Vista, Calif.)
Nick Taylor (Wichita, Kan.)
David Wagner (Walla Walla, Wash.)

Men’s Team

Jon Rydberg, Coach (Woodbury, Minn.)
Chris Herman (Gulfport, Fla.)
Casey Ratzlaff (Wichita, Kan.)
Conner Stroud (Rutherfordton, N.C.)

A total of 44 teams representing 24 countries will take part in the 2019 competition in Israel. Teams will compete in four separate divisions: women’s (12 nations), quad (8 nations), men’s (16 nations) and junior event (8 nations).

The American quad team will look to improve on their past two years bronze medal performances while the women will look to improve on their seventh place finish. The men’s team will once again be back in the World Group after the Americans fell out after falling out of the Top 12 two years ago.

The World Team Cup is the International Tennis Federation’s flagship wheelchair tennis event, often referred to as the Davis Cup and Fed Cup of wheelchair tennis. The inaugural event was held in California in 1985 involving six men’s teams. The women’s competition began the following year, with quad and junior events introduced in 1998 and 2000, respectively. The event has experienced continued growth since.

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