ITF

DEVELOPMENT ITF World Summer 2022 37 with their community effectively to attract new players and retain them. Tennis is presented as a lifetime sport with health and social benefits for all age groups. "Before a national association can receive an ITF Facility Grant, it has to submit a project proposal which illustrates how the centres can sustain themselves through various national, regional and international programmes. Antigua, Belize and Suriname all qualified for ITF Facility Grants over the past 10 years and were able to complete their projects with sponsorship help from the corporate world. "Once a national association becomes financially sustainable, they can more or less finance their own development, they can have their own national tennis centres so they aren't dependent on private facilities, and they can be self-sustaining in coach education so they don't need to fly in outside experts for basic instruction." There are some bright lights on the horizon. Suriname's new national tennis centre will open in October, having managed to get the project off the ground even in the Covid years. The 12-court facility built by the Trinidad & Tobago government and national tennis association hosted not just the COTECC regional under-12 team competition in July but also the Davis Cup Group IV matches involving nine nations in August. The ITF has helped Antigua build its own tennis centre; Curacao is planning its own facility soon. The Bahamas plans to recondition its national tennis centre with the assistance of the ITF Facility Grant programme. "We're working hard with each nation to develop all key pillars: events, participation, performance, education and facilities" says Goede. "In the Caribbean, it takes a village to build a champion: every stakeholder in the country – family, schools, association, government. It's a long road, but we're getting there." n Darian King in Davis Cup ac on for Barbados Mobile nets and cones are used in place of tennis courts on the Grenadine island of Carriacou

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