ITF

06 ITFWorld // AUTUMN 2019 T H E P R E S I D E N T ' S Q & A How do you intend to drive par cipa on and a ract new audiences to tennis and what targets have you set? There are approximately 87 million people who currently play tennis worldwide. The goal is to have 120 million players by 2030, which means over the next decade we will need to see an increase of about three per cent each year. The aim is to increase the number of participants but also retain the players currently involved with the sport, and a major tool in our armoury is the ITF World Tennis Number. The ITF World Tennis Number provides a common currency for participants and provides a mechanism for players around the globe to communicate and find their position within the game. There are other great Development programmes, such as the Junior Tennis Initiative, which encourage more young players to get involved with the sport, while the ITF Facility Grant Programme continues to deliver essential tools. As I often say, there can only be one No. 1 men's player and one No. 1 women's player in the world, but there can be 120 million players worldwide and that is our goal. What are your priori es as you embark on the next four years with regards to each of the following ITF circuits? ITF World Tennis Tour Men's/Women's With the changes that we've made in respect of the ITF World Tennis Tour during 2019, we need to continue to inspect what we have done. The vision is to have the right number of events for the players who have the potential to go to the professional ranks. Next year, we will be introducing an entry-level World Tennis Tour event. The level of prize money is yet to be determined but the event will be a step above a national competition and be more regionalised. The overriding intention is to make sure there are more opportunities for players to play locally, and allow a junior player, for instance, to enter the first level of professional tennis and then proceed along the pathway to $15k and $25k events. ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors is the foundation and the strength of the ITF. The development of junior players is something which the nations oversee and have control of. Having enough ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors competitions that sit above their national competitions is imperative. There are roughly 120 nations that run junior events, which is healthy. However, there are not as many that run $15k and $25k events. It is very much a case of working with the nations to make sure there are enough hosting junior events, but also hosting $15k and $25k events so those players have opportunities to compete at the highest level. Seniors Tennis The ambition is for tennis to be the No. 1 sport within the 35 and over age category. We have a robust Seniors circuit with tens of thousands of players competing annually in events across the world. We need to ensure that Seniors tennis continues to grow. Tennis is a sport for life and it is important to allow players to remain active and healthy within the sport they love. We will look to expand where possible, improve the geographical reach of the sport and make sure that competitors do not have to travel huge distances to compete at the level they want. Wheelchair Tennis As with Seniors, we want Wheelchair Tennis to grow. We are in a strong position and in July the ITF launched its new Wheelchair Tennis Development Plan, which aims to increase participation, boost the number of National Associations offering the sport and develop talented players. The plan will be aided by the $1m annual investment into Wheelchair Tennis by Kosmos as part of the Davis Cup partnership with the ITF and the continued support from the Cruyff Foundation. With the increased investment, the sport can thrive. Beach Tennis Beach Tennis is an exciting sport and we are increasing what we do in this discipline. We are staging more events and tournaments and we are seeing growing interest in the sport from many nations. You do not always need a beach to play Beach Tennis and the sport is attracting a new and different customer, which may not be the traditional tennis player, although some do play. Our aim is to increase Beach Tennis's reach around the world. ■ Haggerty intends to increase Development spending to more than $20m by 2024

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