ITF

ITF World Winter 2022/23 5 you can read more in our Eastern Promise spotlight feature on page 32. Since 2015, we have ensured that all nations have a voice within our federation. During that time, 15 nations have become Class B members of the ITF, and four more have expressed an interest in becoming Class B members in the next couple of years. Three nations have joined ITF membership as Class C (non-voting) members. This underlines the growth of tennis, and the appeal of our sport all over the world. We continue to work with all 213 of our member nations to ensure the long-term growth and sustainability of tennis. Great news for the player pathway I'm pleased to be able to highlight another ITF-ATP collaboration from 2023 onwards: the Accelerator Programme, which sees playing opportunities at ATP Challenger Tour level and ITF World Tennis Tour events reserved for the world's top junior players. This forms part of the ITF's long-term strategy to develop more opportunities for players to progress through the player pathway to the top level of the game. You can read more on page 38. It's important that tennis works together to create new opportunities for young players. By collaborating, we can create a brighter future for the sport and ensure that future generations have opportunities to progress to the top of the game. We are excited to be part of the effort to make this happen, and it will be fascinating to watch the progress of the first beneficiaries of this initiative this season. Celebrating our ITF World Champions The 2022 ITF World Champions are Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek, Rajeev Ram, Joe Salisbury, Barbora Krejcikova, Katerina Siniakova, Gilles Bailly, Lucie Havlickova, Shingo Kunieda, Diede de Groot and Niels Vink, who were outstanding in their respective categories last season. You can read here exclusive interviews with Gilles Bailly, Lucie Havlickova and Niels Vink, and we're also celebrating the extraordinary career of Shingo Kunieda, who has announced his retirement. I'm sure all our readers will join me in saying congratulations everyone, and bon voyage Shingo! n PRESIDENT'S VIEW Congratulations to Canada, who were crowned Davis Cup world champions for the first time in November, and to Switzerland, who enjoyed a first-time triumph in Billie Jean King Cup. AGM votes for greater gender equality The ITF and delegates from 120 of our member national associations gathered in November at our Annual General Meeting in Glasgow. There was a focus on the ITF Advantage All gender equality initiative and I am delighted that nations voted 71.09% in favour of amending the ITF Constitution to introduce minimum gender representation requirements on the ITF Board of Directors. Effective from 2027, the 14 elected Board members must include a minimum of four women and four men. The additional two athlete representatives must be one woman and one man, and the elected President can be of either gender. This is an important step forward on the path to true gender balance in the elected membership of our sport. The AGM also hosted our second Advantage All Global Forum, which brought together influential trailblazers who are actively advancing equality in the worlds of sport and business. AGM delegates and an online audience listened to speakers including Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Laurie Fabiano, President of the Tory Burch Foundation and Bill Shelton, CMO of Gainbridge, in proactive, solution-focused conversation. We also announced the inaugural winners of the ITF Advantage All Reward & Recognition programme, which recognises national associations for work in their countries towards achieving gender balance and equal opportunity. The Gold award was given to Tennis Ireland for its gender equality strategy 'Equal Advantage'. The Silver award was given to the Lawn Tennis Association (Great Britain) for the organisation's 'She Rallies' initiative. Tennis Australia took home the Bronze award with its vision for 'No limits for women and girls on and off the court'. Advantage All is a long-term project, and we salute all national associations who have made even small steps to achieving an equitable gender balance both on and off the court. As I have said from the outset, this is a collective obligation, not an option. At the AGM we also asked our member nations whether they wanted the ITF to provide them with support to develop the fast- growing tennis variation Padel on a global basis. While the resolution was supported by the majority of the nations, it did not reach the two thirds threshold that ITF governance rules require to be passed. Given the role many national associations are playing in growing Padel, the ITF remains open to seeking to collaborate with stakeholders in the future. Tennis growth around the world Following approval at the AGM, we welcome Nepal as a new Class B member of the ITF. This change in membership status for Nepal marks the next step in their evolution as a tennis-playing country, about which

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