ITF

The ITF Junior Circuit continued to expand in 2013, with 405 tournaments staged in 114 countries. Over 100 nations took part in the ITF's two junior team competitions, with more than 350 teams competing across the 14- and 16-and-under age groups. Alexander Zverev ended the year as world No.1 and became the first German boy to be crowned ITF World Champion. The 16-year-old, who won the Grade A Italian Open and was runner-up at Roland Garros, is the youngest boys' Junior World Champion since Donald Young in 2005. Another 16-year-old, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, became girls' Junior World Champion after an outstanding year which saw her compile a 42-2 singles win-loss record and claim the Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles. Bencic was the first Swiss girl since Martina Hingis in 1994 to end the year as world No.1. Croatia also had a good year on the ITF Junior Circuit as Ana Konjuh won the Australian and US Open girls' singles titles while Borna Coric took the US Open boys' singles crown. The boys' Grand Slam titles were evenly shared out in 2013 as Nick Kyrgios won his home event at the Australian Open, Chile's Christian Garin triumphed at Roland Garros and Gianluigi Quinzi of Italy emerged victorious at Wimbledon. Quinzi also won the Grade A Copa Gerdau, but the other three Grade A titles – the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano, the Osaka Mayor's Cup and the Orange Bowl – were won by three different players. On the girls' side, Bencic won the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano and the Italian Open, while Varvara Flink of Russia claimed two of the other three Grade As and Ivana Jorovic of Serbia one. In the ITF junior team competitions, Russia claimed its first boys' World Junior Tennis title by winning in Prostejov, Czech Republic while USA became champions for the sixth time by defeating Russia to win the girls' event. Spain won the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas competition in San Luis Potosi, Mexico for the fifth time, and Russia's girls secured the Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas title for the third time in the last five years with a final victory over Australia. Players from the top three teams at the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Finals benefitted from the ITF's 16 & Under Team Competition Feed-up System, gaining entry into higher-level ITF Junior Circuit tournaments. A similar system is used for the best 16-and-under players in each region, giving players a chance to get started on the ITF Junior Circuit. The ITF continued its commitment to helping the transition of the top juniors into professional tennis, with the Top 10 boys and girls in the 2012 year-end rankings receiving Junior Exempt places into a range of professional tournaments. For the first time in 2013 players who declined to participate in the programme had their places given to the next highest- ranked player in the year-end rankings. Also as part of the transition to professional tennis, the ITF joined up with sports law firm Couchmans LLP to offer independent legal advice to top junior players considering signing a commercial or representation agreement. This initiative comes under the umbrella of the ITF Junior Tennis School, which also includes the e-learning website and interactive forums held in most regions across the world. By the end of the year the website counted more than 12,000 registered members from 193 countries, the majority of them players, but also including parents, coaches and officials. A total of eight interactive forums were held and around 900 junior players, including competitors at the pre-Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Roehampton, attended an ITF/Regional Association educational forum in 2013. ITF JUNIOR CIRCUIT Over 100 nations took part in the ITF's two junior team competitions, with more than 350 teams competing across the 14- and 16-and-under age groups. 12,000 405 e-learning website members Junior tournaments in 2013 24 DEVELOPMENT: ITF JUNIOR CIRCUIT 25

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