ITF

SPRING 2017 WELCOME 2 ITFWORLD SPRING 2017 W elcome to the Spring issue of ITFWorld. This is the first edition of 2017, and as I write, the first four months of the tennis calendar are already behind us. What a rich and varied start to the year it has been. Our cover star, Roger Federer, put himself resoundingly back in contention by lifting the Australian Open trophy, and it will be fascinating to see if he can extend his record of 18 major men's singles titles at the summer Slams. Serena Williams, meanwhile, won the women's title in Melbourne to surpass Steffi Graf's record of 22 Open era Grand Slam titles, but has since announced her pregnancy and a break from competition. We wish her well in her exciting months ahead, and look forward to seeing her return in 2018 to challenge Margaret Court's overall record mark of 24 major titles. The first two rounds of Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas played out with their usual mix of drama and excitement. In Davis Cup, we have two great match-ups in the semifinals to look forward to — France will host Serbia in September and Belgium will be at home to Australia. The 2017 Davis Cup champions Argentina fell at the first hurdle, losing at home to Italy, while runners- up Croatia were also first-round casualties, to Spain. It was a different story for former champions Serbia, who with world No. 2 Novak Djokovic back on the team wrapped up victory in two days in their ties against Russia and Spain in the first two rounds. France proved as resourceful as ever, beating Great Britain in the quarterfinals to set up a home semifinal against Serbia which will be a rematch of the 2010 final. Belgium, winners over Germany and Italy, will be shooting for their second final in three years when they take on the Australians in September. The travelling Aussies will be hoping that the impressive form in this year's competition of Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson can carry them into their first final in 14 years. Belarus is the surprise package of this year's Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and the young nation will host its first final against the mighty USA in November in what promises to be a fascinating encounter. Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Aryna Sabalenka have been inspired for Belarus this year in the absence of Victoria Azarenka, between them upsetting Netherlands, last year's semifinalists, in the opening round to reach the semifinals for the first time. Belarus then went one better by defeating the much-fancied Swiss team in the last four. With Azarenka poised to return to the tour this summer, Belarus could present quite the challenge to USA as the 17-time champions search for their first Fed Cup title for 17 years. The Americans reached the final by knocking out defending champions Czech Republic, with CoCo Vandeweghe winning all three of her matches for the hosts. You can read more about the recent rounds of both Davis Cup and Fed Cup within these pages. Congratulations to all our nations who are still active in either competition, whether it's at World Group or zonal level, and my thanks to our National Associations who have done such an outstanding job of staging ties. INNOVATION IS KEY ITF President David Haggerty in Rouen, France, for the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinals. He is pictured with Bernard Giudicelli, President of the French Tennis Federation, and Martin Corrie, President of Great Britain's LTA

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