ITF

DEVELOPMENT Timor-Leste "In May 2022, I conducted the ITF's first-ever visit to Timor-Leste after its ITF membership was approved the previous year. It took nearly 100 hours to get there but once there I met with Aniceto Alves, the then President of the Timor-Leste Tennis Association (TLTA), high-ranking officials from the Timor-Leste Sports Ministry, its National Olympic Committee and the East Timor Sports Confederation. The purpose of the visit was to welcome Timor-Leste to the ITF family, assess the standard of tennis development there and conduct an ITF Play Tennis course. In short, Timor-Leste is only just beginning its tennis journey, although the early signs are encouraging. The TLTA has signed the ITF World Tennis Number agreement, meaning Timor-Leste will participate in this key ITF project. It has also joined the Junior Tennis Initiative. As always, coach education is paramount, and the next step for the TLTA is to run courses and workshops. An assessment for white level status within the ITF's Recognition of Coach Education Systems programme is a medium-term goal." Indonesia "Indonesia hosted one of the two in-person ITF Regional Coaches Conferences – a very important element of the ITF's Coach Education Programme – in late 2022 and it was a great success. The Indonesian Tennis Association has been super active over the years and the nation hosts lots of events, whether that be ITF World Tennis Tour events or pre-qualifying and qualifying tournaments for ITF junior team competition. In terms of participation, there is huge potential given the population of Indonesia – the world's largest island country – is close to 300 million and there are positive signs within the Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI). Indonesia joined the ITF's JTI, which provides opportunities for increased participation and identifies talented individuals for focused development, in 2019 and during the Covid-19 pandemic the programme thrived. Numbers soared and the JTI has continued to prosper since, with JTI Coordinator Martin Setiawan – a high-performance coach – deserving of much praise for all his hard work. There are other ongoing initiatives which could boost participation further." C L I C K H E R E TO R E A D M O R E INDONESIA TIMOR-LESTE SUMATRA BORNEO NEW GUINEA Below, le to right: Jonathan's development visit to Timor-Leste last May; Indonesia's Priska Madelyn Nugroho has been supported by the Grand Slam Player Development Programme The ITF's Junior Tennis Initiative, which provides opportunities for children to pick up a racket for the first time and encourages them to play in locally organised competitions and sessions within schools, is growing in Bangladesh. ITF World Winter 2022/23 35

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