Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/117483
The All England Club has a culture of contribution that stretches more than a century and all of us in tennis have benefited from its foresight, vision and generosity. The field in Australia was without the great Esther Vergeer who announced her retirement from competitive tennis at the start of February. You will enjoy a story about Esther later in this issue and she is celebrated on the cover. I want to say that she will be missed by all of us who enjoyed watching her play but her legacy in tennis is assured, not just because of her unparallelled winning streak but because she is a true professional and a great personality. On the final Saturday in Melbourne, at the Legends lunch, Geoff Pollard, long-standing member of the ITF Board of Directors and former President of Tennis Australia, received the Golden Achievement Award from the ITF and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Geoff is a very worthy recipient of this award with all he has achieved and continues to achieve in tennis in his many roles and it was a pleasure for me, as well as Jane Brown Grimes and Chris Clouser of the ITHF, to present him with it. Right after the Open, we had back-to-back weeks of Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas. Congratulations to the eight teams who have moved forward to the quarterfinal round of Davis Cup where Kazakhstan will host the champions from Czech Republic, Canada will host Italy, Argentina will host France and the United States will host Serbia whose first round efforts were led by world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. For Canada, it is the first-ever time in the quarterfinals and they achieved an upset over Spain, the most dominant team of the last 13 years. Czech Republic survived a difficult tie against Switzerland with Tomas Berdych and Lucas Rosol defeating Marco Chiudinelli and Stanislas Wawrinka in an epic seven-hour encounter, the longest match in Davis Cup history. My heart went out to the Swiss who fought so hard all weekend. In the United States, the home team survived a scare from Brazil with the Bryan brothers losing only their third Davis Cup match as a team but Sam Querrey won his two singles to put them through. In Fed Cup, the champions from Czech Republic defeated Australia, Slovak Republic took out last year���s finalists from Serbia while Italy and Russia survived great challenges from the United States and Japan respectively. The semifinal line-up will feature Czech Republic at Italy and Slovak Republic at Russia. In World Group II, Germany defeated France in Amelie Mauresmo���s first outing as captain, Switzerland defeated Belgium, Argentina defeated Sweden and Spain, under new captain Conchita Martinez, defeated Ukraine. In February, Jean Gachassin was re-elected as president of the French Tennis Federation, while at the start of the year the USTA welcomed a new president as David A. Haggerty succeeded Jon www.itftennis.com Vegosen in the position. I would like to congratulate both of them and wish them well as they start their new terms in office. The first of March was a milestone for us as it was the day that the ITF was formed in 1913 in Paris. All this year we are celebrating our 100th birthday with events around the world, including the inaugural World Tennis Day on 4 March. This initiative, supported enthusiastically by over 50 National Associations, is a way to highlight tennis participation by linking demonstrations of the sport with a series of high profile tennis events. This year���s success makes us look forward to 3 March 2014. This is also the 50th edition of ITFWorld. We are very proud of our official magazine which continues to highlight our activities and those of our sport four times a year. I want to thank Joanne Burnham, the editor, for her creative approach to this publication and attention to detail, and all the writers and photographers that have contributed over the years to the success of ITFWorld. We are all looking forward to the ITF World Champions Dinner this year where the All England Club will receive the Philippe Chatrier Award, the ITF���s highest honour. The All England Club has a culture of contribution that stretches more than a century and all of us in tennis have benefited from its foresight, vision and generosity. Many people would be unaware that the ITF was housed at the Club for many years or that Wimbledon was the first of the Grand Slams to offer funding towards tennis development, in what was the precursor of the Grand Slam Development Fund. At no small disruption to the Club and its members, the Club has hosted two Olympic Tennis Events, including the most recent, a triumph for the Olympics and for tennis. During my presidency, there have been three chairmen, John Curry, Tim Phillips and Philip Brook, and we count them all as friends. In the view of the ITF Board of Directors, in our centenary year there is no more fitting recipient of the Philippe Chatrier Award than the All England Club. Francesco Ricci Bitti ITF President ITFWORLD SPRING 2013 3