ITF

ACROSS THE FOUR DAYS OF THE ITF CONFERENCE AND AGM, DELEGATES FROM THE RECORD 149 NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS IN ATTENDANCE WERE CHALLENGED to continue driving change in the sport and keep pace with the rapid evolution of the global sporting landscape. Welcoming the delegates to the conference in Lisbon, ITF President David Haggerty introduced the overarching theme: transforming tennis. "Transforming means bringing about tangible, significant change," he said. "It means delivering a step-change in the role, ambition and abilities of the ITF and member nations. So when we talk about transforming tennis you can see that it is real, and it is already having a positive impact throughout the tennis world." Among the key reforms of recent years, the ITF has restructured both the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, with the new Finals formats making their debuts in Madrid in November 2019 and Budapest in April 2020 respectively. The revamped ITF World Tennis Tour Men's/Women's, ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and World Tennis Ranking were introduced in 2019 to streamline the pathway from junior and entry-level tiers of the sport towards the ATP and WTA Tours, with many top juniors already reaping the benefits as they make their first strides into the senior ranks. In addition, the ITF World Tennis Number was launched in July 2019, with the aim of helping players of all abilities worldwide to determine their individual level so they can identify opponents and competitions of an appropriate standard. The topic of transformation continued as Chief Operating Officer Kelly Fairweather discussed the shifts in the traditional federation model in an increasingly data-driven, digital and consumer-focused world. "The need to transform is real and urgent," he said in his summary of the findings of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations report into the future of global sport. "When you look across all major sports and the rapid change and disruptions, the best place to start is by looking at young consumers and the different demands they are making on sports and leisure time." "It's not about if we have to transform, it's how we have to transform," host Annabel Croft echoed ahead of a panel discussion featuring Jennifer Bishop of Tennis Canada, Tennis Kenya's Wanjiru Mbugua-Karani, Roger Davids of the Netherlands and Rithivit Tep of Tennis Cambodia. The discussion panel touched on the nations' experiences, success stories and goals in growing the sport. At the heart of each story, however, was one abiding theme: the passion for tennis is truly global. Tennis development assumed centre stage on day three as nations were presented with the major findings of the ITF Global Tennis Report, while the Chinese Tennis Association received the 2019 Global Organisation of Distinction Award from the International Tennis Hall of Fame. As he announced the 2019 award winner, Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin pointed to China's achievements at both the elite and grass-roots levels, from the emergence of over 19 million recreational players to their success at the Olympics, winning women's doubles gold in 2004 and Li Na's induction into the Hall of Fame in July. Earlier in proceedings, the ITF Development team presented the progress made in global tennis development, made possible by the unprecedented levels of funding provided by the ITF's member associations. Executive Director for Development Luca Santilli pointed to the ITF World Tennis Number, the Worldwide Participation Conferences and the first ITF Global Tennis Report – distributed to member nations ahead of the AGM – as major steps forward in federation and national associations' insight into the tennis landscape. The report produced a series of key findings, including a global 53%-47% male-female divide among the world's 87 million tennis players – which represents 1.17% of the global population – playing at 71,000 tennis clubs and on 489,000 courts. Other findings will help steer future initiatives within the sport, including the discovery that of the world's 164,000 tennis coaches, 21% are female, while the average time for a Top 100-ranked junior to reach the Top 100 in the professional ranks is 300.2 weeks for players on the ATP Tour and 222.6 weeks on the WTA Tour. ■ BUSINESS MATTERS From the 29 candidates who stood for election to the ITF Board of Directors, eight of 14 existing members were returned for a further four-year term, which runs until 2023. Katrina Adams (USA), Martin Corrie (GBR), Jack Graham (CAN), Anil Khanna (IND), Alexey Selivanenko (RUS), Rene Stammbach (SUI), Stefan Tzvetkov (BUL) and Bulat Utemuratov (KAZ) were all re-elected. Carlos Bravo (CRC), Bernard Giudicelli (FRA), Nao Kawatei (JPN), Ulrich Klaus (GER), Salma Mouelhi Guizani (TUN) and Camilo Perez Lopez Moreira (PAR) complete the newly-formed board, which unanimously re-appointed Mary Pierce and Mark Woodforde as the two athlete representatives to serve during the 2019-23 term. RULES OF TENNIS The AGM voted to increase the maximum time between points from 20 to 25 seconds. The rule change, which takes effect from 1 January 2020, harmonises the time between points across the professional game and provides consistency for players and officials. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION Alan Schwartz and Sergio Elias were elected as Honorary Life Counsellors of the ITF. There were 18 Awards for Services to the Game approved by the AGM: Fuad AlRowaie BRN Dr David Ho HKG Andrey Bokarev RUS Edmundo Rodriguez BOL Humberto Rodriquez HON Juris Savickis LAT Nohad Schoucair LIB Georgi Krumov BUL Anneliese Rose TTO Selima Sfar TUN Enrique Perez Cassarino URU Harri Louhos FIN Ihsan Can Uner TUR Luis Ferretti Cobos ECU Dirk Hordorff GER Scott Windus AUS Esther Vergeer NED Bernard Pestre FRA ITFWorld // AUTUMN 2019 09 BELOW: The ITF Conference and AGM provided the opportunity for networking

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