Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/1503920
2022 ITF Annual Review 30 TOURS AND PLAYER PATHWAY The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors is a key step on the interna onal player pathway. We provide tournaments and ranking points for players up to the age of 18, offering a launchpad for the best junior talent to progress to the professional game. Juniors can also take part in the ITF's interna onal team compe ons: ITF World Junior Tennis for boys and girls aged 14 and under, and the 16-and- under Davis Cup Juniors and Billie Jean King Cup Juniors by Gainbridge for boys and girls respec vely. Accelerated progress The ITF's ambi on is to create more opportuni es for players to progress through the player pathway to the top of the game. This was strengthened in 2022 by the launch of the Junior Accelerator Programme, a collabora on between the ITF and ATP whereby playing opportuni es at ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Men's World Tennis Tour events are reserved on a sliding scale for the Top 30 boys on the year-end junior rankings. Providing main draw places in ATP Challenger Tour events is more consistent with what is already on offer for the best girls, where the year-end Top 20 receive five opportuni es to access main draws on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, up to W100 level, in the following year. We are also expanding the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors to provide more playing opportuni es. Working ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and ITF junior team competitions with our Na onal Associa ons we staged a record 791 tournaments in 116 countries in 2022. Our goal for 2023 is to return the number of hos ng na ons to pre-pandemic levels (139 na ons hosted in 2019). Most of the growth in 2022 came from the entry-level J60 and J30 (formerly Grades 4 and 5) tournaments, with 68% more events at this level compared to 2019. The ITF is focusing on increasing these tournaments to provide compe ve opportuni es closer to home, enabling talented boys and girls to earn their ini al ITF ranking points with reduced costs. Entry by WTN To make it easier and fairer for players to access junior tour events, we introduced