Canada’s men’s and quads team just came up short of competing for a place in the 2026 World Team Cup Final in September, falling in the semifinals of the Americas Qualification event in Lima, Peru.
Both sides were able to overcome losing starts to the week to make it out of their respective group.
The men’s team split their opening-two singles matches in their first tie against Argentina before Barry Henderson and Thomas Venos erased a one-set deficit to force a decisive tiebreaker in doubles. The BC-natives lost out 10-7 in the tiebreak to drop the tie.
However, Venos and Henderson bounced to keep their hopes alive. The Canadians went perfect in singles through the remainder of group play as Henderson conceded just five games across Canada’s 2-1 win over Uruguay and sweep against Guatemala.
Venos lost the opening set against Uruguay’s Luciano Varela but took the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. The world No. 34 then scored a double bagel over Guatemalan Jose Giron.
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Canada finished second in the group, setting up a semifinal tie against Colombia. The winner competed for a qualification spot in the World Team Cup Final.
Henderson lost his opening match, but Venos got his nation back on level terms thanks to a straight-sets win. In doubles, the Canucks were unable to get the better of Colombians Diego Pirachican Martinez and Manuel Sanchez, ending Canada’s run.
The Canadian quads team’s opening-tie loss came against qualification-favourites Chile, but the duo of Lachlan Sandford and Shawn Courchesne cruised through their remaining round-robin matches, sweeping hosts Peru then Ecuador while conceding just a single set.
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The Canucks faced Japan in the semifinals – Americas and Asia qualifying is combined in quads – as Courchesne was able to send the tie to a decisive doubles match following his 6-1, 6-4 win over Kei Usami. Sandford and Courchesne got off to a solid start, taking the first set in doubles, but couldn’t fight off Usami and Takuya Ikeda’s late push, losing 3-6, 6-3, 10-6.
Canada’s men’s and quads team will compete for third place on Friday, both against Argentina.
Feature Photo: Mara Chaplin
