ITF

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 03 This year, the ITF decided to celebrate the very special fans of Davis Cup and Fed Cup through our "Show Your Colours" campaign and how right we were. I attended seven ties and what is clear to me is that these fans are what distinguish Davis Cup and Fed Cup from tournament tennis. Their involvement inspires the players to great heights and rewards the players for great effort. I have one word to summarise both Davis Cup and Fed Cup Finals: magic. It was the Czechs against the Germans in Fed Cup by BNP Paribas. Over 10,500 very loud fans attended the O2 Arena in Prague each day to watch Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova lead their team to a third title in four years. Helena Sukova received the ITF/ITHF Fed Cup Award of Excellence, a fitting honour for her 13 years of participation in Fed Cup including four titles. From almost every perspective the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final between France and Switzerland was a triumph. It was a joy, even for the French fans, to see Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka celebrate the victory with their teammates, Marco Chiudinelli and Michael Lammer and captain Severin Luthi. REVIEW OF THE YEAR BY ITF PRESIDENT FRANCESCO RICCI BITTI We achieved many records at the Davis Cup Final including attendance for a sanctioned tennis event at 27,448 on Sunday, huge television, web and social media audiences and the attention of fans and sports stars around the world. It was a very interesting Grand Slam year with eight different champions including two first time winners: Stan Wawrinka emerging victorious at the Australian Open and Marin Cilic at the US Open. Rafael Nadal, won a ninth Roland Garros crown while Novak Djokovic outlasted a resurgent Roger Federer to win a seventh Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. Li Na triumphed at the Australian Open, Maria Sharapova lifted the Roland Garros trophy while Petra Kvitova secured a second Wimbledon title and Serena Williams a sixth US Open trophy. The two year-end No. 1 teams in doubles were Bob and Mike Bryan and Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci. In 2014, the Bryans added the US Open, six Masters Series events and the ATP World Tour Doubles Finals to their large resume. Errani and Vinci won the Australian Open, completed a career Grand Slam at Wimbledon and were victorious at the WTA Tour Doubles Final. It is no surprise that the ITF World Champions for 2014 are Djokovic, Williams, the Bryans, Errani and Vinci, Shingo Kunieda and Yui Kamiji. The 2014 edition of the Hopman Cup saw France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Alize Cornet defeat Poland to give their country a first Hopman Cup title. This was a very interesting year for junior tennis as it marked the second edition of the Youth Olympic Games, staged in 2014 in Nanjing, China. The gold medallists were Kamil Majchrzak of Poland, Xu Shilin of China, Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus, Orlando Luz and Marcelo Zormann of Brazil and Jil Teichmann of Switzerland and Jan Zielinski of Poland. The ITF World Junior Tennis Event in Prostejov, Czech Republic, was won in 2014 by the German boys, defeating Canada, and the Russian girls, who overcame Ukraine. Junior Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, staged in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, saw the American boys and girls dominate this year with wins over Korea, Republic and Slovakia respectively. (Continued overleaf )

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