ITF

ITF JUNIOR CIRCUIT 22 DEVELOPMENT: ITF JUNIOR CIRCUIT The ITF Junior Circuit continued to expand in 2014, with 414 tournaments staged in 119 countries, including one in Guam for the first time. 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. Andrey Rublev ended the year as world No. 1 and became the first Russian boy to be crowned ITF World Champion. The 17-year-old reached the semifinals or better in five Grade A tournaments in 2014, including at Roland Garros where he claimed the title. Fifteen-year-old Catherine Bellis clinched the girls' ITF World Champion accolade at her last tournament of the year, the Grade A Orange Bowl, where she reached the semifinals of the singles and won the doubles title. Bellis also won the Grade A Italian Open and two other tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit as she became the second American girls' World Champion in three years. As has been the case several times in recent years, the Grand Slam singles titles were shared out among eight players in 2014. Rublev's fellow Russians Elizaveta Kulichkova and Darya Kasatkina were victorious at the Australian Open and Roland Garros respectively, while Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko won Wimbledon and Marie Bouzkova of Czech Republic took the US Open title. On the boys' side, Alexander Zverev of Germany won the Australian Open, American Noah Rubin was an unseeded Wimbledon champion and Omar Jasika of Australia achieved the same feat at the US Open. The remaining six Grade A tournaments of 2014 also featured a varied cast of winners. The 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games, held in Nanjing, China, P.R., had Grade A status on the Circuit and the singles gold medallists were local favourite Xu Shilin and Poland's Kamil Majchrzak. Xu also won the Osaka Mayor's Cup in Japan, making her the only player to win more than one Grade A event in 2014. The other winners were Orlando Luz and Jil Teichmann in Porto Alegre; Roman Safiullin along with Bellis at the Italian Open; Taylor Fritz along with Xu in Osaka; Michael Mmoh and Dalma Galfi at the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano; and Stefan Kozlov and Sofia Kenin at the Orange Bowl. In junior team competitions, Germany claimed its second boys' ITF World Junior Tennis title by winning in Prostejov, Czech Republic while Russia became champions for the fifth time by defeating Ukraine to win the girls' event. In San Luis Potosi, Mexico, USA boys and girls were victorious for the third time each in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Finals. 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 best juniors into professional tennis, with the Top 10 boys and girls in the 2013 year-end rankings receiving Junior Exempt places into a range of professional tournaments. Another initiative, begun in 2013 and continuing in 2014, was that of the partnership between the ITF and Couchmans LLP to provide free independent legal advice on both representation and commercial contracts for top juniors, as part of the ITF Junior Tennis School. One area currently being invested in on the ITF Junior Circuit is live scoring and live streaming of matches. Tennis Ticker was appointed the official live scoring partner of the ITF Junior Circuit, and 25 tournaments used this service in 2014. High definition live streaming was also introduced at the ITF junior team competition finals as tennisJUNIORtv was named the official live streaming partner of the circuit. This is an area of the junior game which promises to expand greatly in the future.

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