ITF

ITF World Winter 2021 33 Alegre. These two tournaments were held this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a big focus upon the development of junior players and each year Confederação Brasileira de Tênis (CBT) organises an end-of-season meeting, which brings together the best junior and professional players for a week-long camp. The ITF, in partnership with COSAT, also organises high-performance camps at the national association's headquarters in Florianopolis for the best 15 and 16-year-old players in South America. The Junior Tennis Initiative is an important programme for CBT, although the big problem in terms of participation is a lack of public courts, with access largely restricted to private clubs and academies. Coaches' education in Brazil, however, is very well developed and the nation has obtained gold level in the ITF's Recognition of Coach Education Systems programme. The tone is set by CBT president Rafael Westrupp, who is not only a former player, but now a Level 3 coach " BRAZIL Brazil is the largest country in the region and the nation with the most tennis players – 2.6 million. At the height of Gustavo Kuerten's career – a three-time Grand Slam champion who reached world No. 1 in December 2000 – Brazilian tennis boomed. Brazil currently has two top 100 players in Tiago Monteiro and Beatriz Haddad Maia, although it is in doubles that the nation continues to thrive. There are six Brazilian doubles players within the top 100, including Grand Slam winners Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares. The big moment this year was of course Luisa Stefani and Laura Pigossi winning bronze in the women's doubles at the Olympic Tennis Event at Tokyo 2020. Sealing Brazil's first Olympic tennis medal was a fantastic achievement and the whole country was extremely proud. Brazil is a nation which hosts a considerable number of tournaments. In Juniors, the most notable events are the prestigious Banana Bowl at JA Criciuma and the J1 event at Porto having been trained through the ITF/Olympic Solidarity programme in Valencia, Spain. Notable also, Brazil is very advanced with the roll-out of the ITF World Tennis Number and is expected to launch soon. Wheelchair Tennis is very well developed in Brazil as of course is Beach Tennis. The 2021 ITF Beach Tennis World Cup was held on the sands of Capacabana beach in October with Brazil crowned champions. It is estimated that the number of individuals playing Beach Tennis has exceeded 500,000 with many building blocks in place across the country to grow that further. " PARAGUAY Paraguay stands out as a tournament-hosting nation and the quality of these events, both in terms of structure and organisation, helps attract high-quality players to the region. In total, six ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors tournaments, three at Lambare, two at Luque and one at Asuncion, and several COSAT events – the organisation's headquarters are in Asunción – have been staged in Paraguay this year. Paraguay also hosted the South American qualifying events for the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals and the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Finals. A nation with a very active Junior Tennis Initiative, the last two years have been difficult, with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing the closure of schools, resulting in a lack of activities. However, Tennis 10s tournaments and club activities remain strong. This year has seen online courses take place to train Play Tennis tutors. This proved successful and in September, the first in-person Play Tennis course was held with national tutors, which was a significant step. There was great news recently with Asociacion Paraguaya de Tenis receiving white level in the ITF's Recognition of Coach Education Systems programme. Incidentally, Paraguay is a nation where Padel is extremely popular. " " Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay Gustavo Kuerten is a significant figure within Brazilian tennis history CLICK FOR MAP VIEW

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