Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/441551
38 ITFWORLD WINTER 2014 WINTER 2014 NEWS ROuND-uP The 34th Super-Seniors World Individual Championships held in Antalya, Turkey in october produced winners from five continents. Six hundred and thirty-six players from 37 nations took part in the ITF's flagship championships for this age group, competing in six different age categories from 60 to 85 and over. The men's singles champions were Brazil's Roger Guedes (60), Spain's Jorge Camina Borda (65), Germany's Peter Adrigan (70), Australia's Don Biddle (75), USA's King Van Nostrand (80) and Italy's Angelo Sala (85), with Van Nostrand celebrating his tenth singles title. The women's singles champions were Germany's Heidi Eisterlehner (65), Netherlands' Ellie Krocke (70), Canada's Inge Weber (75), Germany's Ilse Michael (80) and USA's Doris Jane Lutz (85). Eighteen further titles were contested in doubles and mixed doubles, with full results available at www.itftennis.com/seniors. A week earlier in the same venue, 156 teams from 30 countries took part in the NATIONS CONVERGE ON SUPER-SENIORS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ITF Super-Seniors World Team Championships for the same age groups, with ten cups up for grabs. Although USA was unable to repeat its dominant performance of 2013, when the nation won six events, the Americans were still the leaders on the honours board, securing three titles: the Gardnar Mulloy Cup, Kitty Godfree Cup, and Queen's Cup. Either USA or France was involved in eight of the ten finals during the week, and France was the other multiple title-winner, securing the Von Cramm Cup and Jack Crawford Cup. Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain and Spain were the other winning nations. From 2015 through 2017, the Grand Slam tournaments have agreed to increase their contribution to the Grand Slam Development Fund (GSDF) by 25 per cent to over $2 million annually in order to assist in the development of tennis worldwide. The ITF and Grand Slam Development Fund jointly fund tennis's Development Programme. "We want to thank the Grand Slam tournaments for their continuing generosity to the development of the sport of tennis through the Grand Slam Development Fund," said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. "Since it was founded in 1986, the Fund has contributed nearly $42 million to provide opportunities for players to compete or to help them directly so that more nations and players will be represented in the mainstream of international competition. It is easy to see how successful this programme has been over the years with the ever-growing number of nations whose players compete at the highest levels." With annual contributions from the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Fund has become an effective means for the ITF to fulfil its mandate to develop competitive tennis worldwide through its affiliated National Associations. The total funding by the ITF and the Grand Slam tournaments in the Development Programme since 1986 is over $83 million. Grand Slam tournamentS increaSe fundinG to GSdf itf launcHeS cHineSe Social media The ITF has announced a partnership with red Lantern Digital media to launch social media platforms in China. The first ITF social accounts went live in China on 8 August on Sina Weibo and Tencent WeChat, with the first objective being extensive coverage of the 2014 youth olympic Games in Nanjing. Accounts on the same platforms were then rolled out for Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas. "With China being the largest market in Asia, we look forward to growing the visibility of both the ITF and our major competitions, Davis Cup and Fed Cup, as well as the ITF Junior Masters, scheduled for April, 2015," said Kenny MacLeod, ITF Commercial Director. "We were very excited to learn that Davis Cup, in particular, has a large following in China and we look to build on that by providing unique and specialised content for the Chinese audience." King Van Nostrand with his 80s singles medal