ITF

2023 ITF Annual Review 47 The ITF's officia ng func on has a dual purpose. It maintains and applies consistently the rules and regula ons in place across our own major events and tours. It also delivers the Joint Cer fica on Programme for officials across the whole of tennis, in partnership with the WTA, ATP and the four Grand Slam tournaments. Tennis officials are the chief umpires, chair umpires and referees who work at events around the world. A unified approach The Joint Cer fica on Programme means that every official's educa on, ability and experience is acknowledged by a cer fica on that is recognised by all of tennis's T7 group of interna onal stakeholders. The ITF administers the programme, in partnership with the WTA, ATP and Grand Slams. This not only ensures a high, consistent standard of officia ng – with ongoing assessment and recer fica on an important part of the process – but also provides a pathway for men and women to make their careers in officia ng. There are currently more than 1,500 cer fied officials working in the sport around the world. In 2023, we con nued to strengthen our rela onships with our T7 partners. A working group featuring all par es took a fresh look at the evalua on process for Interna onal officials, leading to a new process being trialled and implemented in early 2024, with a view to it becoming permanent. Officia ng schools programme The ITF's officia ng schools programme ensures our member Na onal Associa ons and partners have qualified officials for na onal and interna onal tournaments. We train and cer fy officials at four levels, from Na onal (entry level), through Green Badge, White Badge up to Interna onal (advanced level, working at major interna onal events). We trained 440 officials in 2023. Sixty-five men and women a ended Interna onal schools, 175 a ended White Badge schools, and 30 a ended Green Badge schools. We collaborated with our member na ons to run 10 Na onal schools for 170 people in Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Czechia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Seychelles and Sweden. Webinars and refresher courses were also held during the year. The ITF engages with officia ng managers within Na onal Associa ons to ensure they are aware of officia ng developments and school opportuni es. Our regional officia ng officers do the same with our affiliated Regional Associa ons. Working with our Joint Cer fica on Programme partners, the ITF created online refresher courses for interna onal referees, and online training for interna onal chiefs of umpires is also being considered. The ITF Academy pla orm plays an important part in the training and recer fica on of officials, and we created 30 online modules during 2023. As well as the Interna onal courses, we added referee modules and training on tournament management so ware. At the end of 2023, 543 Interna onal officials and 1,132 White and Green Badge officials were recer fied based on their 2023 performances. Serving tournaments We provide qualified officials to work at ITF events, serving the tournaments and helping organisers to maintain and improve officia ng standards. Integrity is a key pillar of the ITF2024+4 strategy, and so is opportunity, and we provided assignments for officials to work at more than 50 major events in 2023. There were 558 Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup assignments alone, across regional compe ons, World Group events, Play- Offs, Qualifiers and Finals. For each assignment we consider geographic distribu on, and the gender balance of officials as part of our Advantage All programme. The ITF also gave $58,000 in travel grants to support the development of officials in regions where more are needed. Administered by our regional officia ng officers, more than 250 officials benefi ed from these in 2023. Integrity and safeguarding We worked with the Interna onal Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and our own Safeguarding team in 2023 to ensure that the safeguarding of officials at events is considered. ITIA presented on integrity at all Interna onal and White Badge officia ng schools, and provided a digital presenta on which is included in both ITF and Na onal Associa on course materials. We are suppor ng officia ng managers within Na onal Associa ons with the handling of integrity and safeguarding ma ers.

• Cover