Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/560492
ITFWORLD SUMMER 2015 3 www.itftennis.com Wawrinka in the Roland Garros final means that he has no chance to win the Grand Slam this year but this is only a slight setback for his outstanding season. While the US Open is still ahead of him, his record this year speaks for itself and it is doubtful that anyone will replace him as No. 1 in 2015. The men's game right now has great depth with Djokovic and Wawrinka joined by Federer and Murray and, while there is still a question mark over the fitness of Rafa Nadal, it would be foolish to count him out at any stage. The men's doubles events at Roland Garros and Wimbledon saw two new teams win their first Grand Slam titles. Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo won at Roland Garros, defeating Bob and Mike Bryan, and Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau won at Wimbledon, defeating Jamie Murray and John Peers. The women's doubles was more predictable as Australian Open champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Safarova won a second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros while top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won a first title at Wimbledon. Mattek-Sands also captured the mixed doubles in Paris with Mike Bryan while Hingis won the mixed at Wimbledon with Leander Paes. My congratulations to them all. American hopes for a new generation of top players were given a big boost at Roland Garros and Wimbledon as Tommy Paul defeated Taylor Fritz to win the Roland Garros boys' title and Reilly Opelka won the Wimbledon boys'. Spain also had a successful junior Grand Slam season with Alvaro Lopez San Martin and Jaume Munar winning the Roland Garros boys' doubles and Paula Badosa Gibert winning the girls' singles. The Czechs made their mark with Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova winning the Roland Garros girls' doubles. Sofya Zhuk of Russia won the Wimbledon girls' singles while Hungarians Dalma Galfi and Fanni Stolar won the girls' doubles. Another sign of the depth of tennis around the world, helped by the ITF Development department and the Grand Slam Development Fund, was the victory in the Wimbledon boys' doubles by Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam and Sumit Nagal of India. It is a first-ever Grand Slam title for a player from Vietnam with, I am sure, more to come from that important part of the world. World No. 1 Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands won the wheelchair singles titles at Roland Garros while Kunieda and Great Britain's Gordon Reid and Griffioen and Aniek van Koot won the men's and women's wheelchair doubles titles respectively. Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina and Nicolas Peifer of France won the wheelchair men's doubles title at Wimbledon while Yui Kamiji of Japan and Jordanne Whiley of Great Britain won the women's event. All of us at the ITF celebrated the announcement by the All England Club that Wimbledon will stage wheelchair singles events from 2016, great news for this fast-growing sport. The ITF Beach Tennis World Team Championships saw host nation Russia upset Brazil to reach the final where they ultimately lost in a hard-fought final to defending champions Italy. The inaugural junior championship was a huge success and saw Italy win the 2015 title. Beach tennis is an exciting discipline and we are gratified by the enormous growth of the sport and the number of nations who join every year. With three age groups now in Seniors competition, the calendar is very full each year. Right after Roland Garros, the ITF Seniors World Individual and World Team Championships, for players 50 through 60, took place in La Baule, France with the USA taking three of the six titles on offer in the team event. All of these competitions attract a growing number of players for whom tennis is an important factor in their lives. They play for passion and it is wonderful to share that time with them. During Roland Garros, the annual ITF World Champions Dinner is a fixture of the calendar. It was a great honour to have the IOC President Thomas Bach as my guest and to have so many great players and dignitaries of our sport on hand. Special thanks to Serena Williams who braved illness to accept her trophy and to Bob and Mike Bryan, Andrey Rublev, CiCi Bellis, Shingo Kunieda and Yui Kamiji who celebrated their outstanding 2014 with us. Mary Carillo received the Philippe Chatrier Award for her contributions to tennis as a journalist and treated us to a very special speech that drew applause from all of our guests. It was my last World Champions Dinner as President and a bittersweet moment for me as I have enjoyed this evening, with all of the great champions of our sport, very much. This is also my final message for ITFWorld as I will hand over to the new President on September 25th at our AGM in Santiago, Chile. It has been an outstanding 16 years for me personally, allowing me to work in the sport that I love and to hopefully make a difference for the better. It has been a great pleasure to see the world and to meet so many wonderful people who share my appreciation for tennis and for sport in general. I have been privileged to work with great teams at Roehampton and at national and regional associations around the world. There are far too many people to mention but one example is Walter Goethals, who recently retired from the Royal Belgian Tennis Federation. I was at the Belgium v Canada Davis Cup tie and had a chance to attend his retirement party. He reminded me we had known each other for almost 40 years and I was able to congratulate him on all he had done for Belgian tennis. My hope is to see my many tennis friends in the future so that I can thank you for all your support over the years. Francesco Ricci Bitti ITF President