Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/117483
Welcome spring 2013 centenary year begins T hroughout sport, the start of 2013 has been overshadowed by the Lance Armstrong story. His confession that he had been doping throughout his career and had lied repeatedly, aggressively and, until recently, successfully has unfortunately called into question the quality of every sport���s anti-doping programme including tennis���s. It is hard to reconcile the hero that Armstrong once seemed to be with the man he actually was, but it is also unfair for every sports man and woman to have their integrity questioned because of his failings. The Tennis Anti-Doping Programme is something that we can be proud of as the quality of our programme is well recognised. But we can always do more and it is time to do more. What many people don���t realise is that there are a number of testing authorities. In tennis, the ITF (the international federation) is one of the testing authorities on behalf of the sport-wide Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, the National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) as well as WADA. It is a complex system and not easily understood. We need all three bodies to better coordinate efforts at all levels to ensure that tennis remains a clean sport. For the future, the ITF with its partners from the Grand Slams, ATP and WTA announced in early March an increased testing programme to include the Athlete Biological Passport which will require more blood testing and a significant investment from all of us. These tests are expensive and unfortunately every dollar earmarked for antidoping is funding that cannot be allocated to tennis development. But we are all committed to the fight and have decided accordingly. In the meantime, it is my hope that people will not judge athletes as guilty just because of Lance Armstrong. His betrayal of his sport, his teammates and his fans is one of the biggest scandals in sport but, in our view, he is the exception and not the rule. I believe that our tennis athletes understand the dangers of doping and it pleases me to see so many of them speak out and request more testing and I can promise them that we will do our best to increase the quantity of tests to a level where even the toughest critic is satisfied. On a more positive note, this year���s Hopman Cup was a huge success in its new home at the state-of-the-art Perth Arena. The crowds were exceptional with over 100,000 attending during the week and the tennis was excellent. The Spanish pair of Fernando Verdasco and Anabel Medina Garrigues defeated Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 2-1 to take the 2013 title. 2 ITFWORLD SPRING 2013 The Australian Open posted another outstanding edition with both Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka successfully defending their titles, defeating Andy Murray and Li Na respectively in the finals. Like all the Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open is constantly upgrading its facility and the new National Tennis Centre and improvements to the existing complex open this year. The National Tennis Centre is very impressive and a great addition to tennis in Australia. It was also very clear that the players appreciated the efforts made by the Australian Open to improve prize money levels and travel compensation. Americans Bob and Mike Bryan set another record in men���s doubles, winning their 13th Grand Slam title, putting them one ahead of the team of John Newcombe and Tony Roche who won 12. The Bryans defeated Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands in the final. Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy won their third Grand Slam doubles title together defeating Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua of Australia in the final. Matthew Ebden and Jarmila Gajdosova from Australia, playing together for the first time as wild cards, defeated Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak of Czech Republic to take the mixed title. In the juniors, Australia led the way in the boys��� events, with Nick Kyrgios defeating Thanasi Kokkinakis in the singles and Jay Andrijic and Bradley Mousley defeating Maximilian Marterer of Germany and Lucas Miedler of Austria in the doubles. In the girls��� events Ana Konjuh of Croatia defeated Katerina Siniakova of Czech Republic in the singles and teamed with Carol Zhao of Canada in the doubles to defeat Oleksandra Korashvili of the Ukraine and Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic. Shingo Kunieda of Japan had a great week in the wheelchair events winning the singles over France���s Stephane Houdet and, teamed with France���s Michael Jeremiasz, the doubles over Stefan Olsson of Sweden and Adam Kellerman of Australia. Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands also won both wheelchair titles, defeating Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany in the singles and, teamed with Jiske Griffioen, the doubles over Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands and Lucy Shuker of Great Britain. In the quads, David Wagner of the United States defeated Andrew Lapthorne of Great Britain, then teamed with Nick Taylor to win the doubles, defeating Lapthorne and Anders Hard of Sweden.