Archive for: itf
New Zealand have been banned from the 2012 Fed Cup. This is a penalty for a late withdrawal in a match at the end of last year, when top New Zealand player werent able to play. Both were somewhat injured and Tennis New Zealand didn’t want to pay the $50,000 fee to send an inexperienced team.
I think the ban is a little harsh as they should have been just fined an amount of money instead. Cant leave a country out of an international event!
Francesco Ricci Bitti is yet again the president of the ITF. Bitti was re-elected just a few days ago and will now remain as president until 2015. This will be his fourth four year term as ITF president.
Thirteen others were elected or re-elected to the ITF board of directors through 2013.
They are Ismail El Shafei of Egypt, Jean Gachassin of France, Lucy Garvin of the United States, Jack Graham of Canada, Chris Kypriotis of Brazil, Suwat Liptapanlop of Thailand, Juan Margets of Spain, Roman Murashkovsky of Russia, Geoff Pollard of Australia, Stuart Smith of Britain, Rene Stammbach of Switzerland, Jon Vegosen of the United States, and Georg von Waldenfels of Germany.
The ITF have announced the teams and draw for the 2011 Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Finals. The Finals will be played on September 27 – October 2 October at La Loma Centro Deportivo and Club Libanes Potosino in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
JUNIOR DAVIS CUP BY BNP PARIBAS
Group A
- Great Britain (1)
- Thailand
- Germany
- Canada (8)
Group B
- Japan (4)
- Tunisia
- Ecuador
- France (6)
Group C
- Australia (3)
- Argentina
- South Africa
- Israel (5)
Group D
- Italy (2)
- Mexico
- Hong Kong, China
- Chile (7)
JUNIOR FED CUP BY BNP PARIBAS
Group A
- Australia (1)
- Argentina
- Great Britain
- Mexico (7)
Group B
- Spain (4)
- Thailand
- South Africa
- Czech Republic (5)
Group C
- Italy (3)
- Bolivia
- Germany
- Japan (6)
Group D
- Canada (2)
- Chinese Taipei
- Romania
- Brazil (8)
A while ago I had an idea to live stream some of the smaller Future and Challenger events and finally someone has actually done this! e-Tennis is live and currently streaming live on Livestream.
Alexandra Mueller has just won a wild card into U.S Open qualifying after defeating Alina Jidkova 6-0, 6-3 in the USTA playoffs.
Mueller, 22, is ranked No. 447 and will have the chance to play the qualifying event for the first time since 2004. “That was six years ago, so I’m a lot more mature now, both mentally and physically,” she said. “To be able to have this chance to go back really is amazing.”
Jidkova, 33, reached as high as No. 51 in the world before undergoing knee surgery in 2005.
Thomas Muster has decided to play a few professional matches on the Challenger tour for a bit of fun. His latest match was at the NORD/LB OPEN Challenger event in Braunschweig, Germany earlier this week. Unfortunately Thomas lost 6-2 6-1 to Conor Niland of Ireland.
Its great to see the classic players still loving tennis and even wanting to scrap it out for fun on the lower level tours. I think it really shows the type of person Thomas Muster is!
The Internation Tennis Federation (ITF) has scheduled to make a final decision today about whether to suspend the Australian Davis Cup team for next year. This all has to do with Australia not wanting to play their Davis Cup match which was scheduled on May 8 – 10 because of security concerns.
In an interview with ABC News Australia, the former world number one doubles player said that ITF should consider the fact that the team made the decision for valid reasons. Aside from the one year ban, Tennis Australia could be fined up to $100,000.
Marin Cilic is a young player from Croatia who currently finds himself at number 14 in the world singles rankings. Marin has had a very quick rise to the top. He was playing junior tennis up until 2006 in which he then received his highest ranking of the world number one junior. While at the same time as holding this junior ranking Marin was also trying to build up a senior career and as many points as possible.
After moving away from junior tennis in 2006 Marin focused on building up as many points as possible on the ATP and ITF tours so that he could really make a living from tennis and live up to his potential. Within his first season on the ITF tour he finished 2006 ranked 173 in the world. This season really pushed his career and pretty much put him where he is today. At the start of 2006 Marin was receiving a lot of wildcards into major tournaments in which he would not have received unless he was the top junior in the world, and he made the most of it. Following in 2007 Marin continued his rise to finish the year at 71 and to now be on the ATP tour fulltime. Finally the growth continued even further to finish 2008 at number 22 and top be now a top player who everyone else wants to beat.
It is amazing how Marin Cilic has risen in the world of tennis and this has really been a steady growth from the age of 16. Marin is now a top 20 player in the world who no matter what tournament he plays is seeded. Im a firm believer that when a player progresses from juniors to seniors they deserve a few wildcards in major tournaments to help them get experience and raise their rankings fast at the same time. However, at the same time the player needs to keep his eye on the ball and actually get strong results on the ITF tours, cause that is really where you learn as a player to fight for every point and every match.
Australian tennis is not currently at its strongest, but with the return of Dokic this week, things are looking up. As well as Dokic doing well the Australian boys are also growing every single year. An Australian boy has won the singles title at the Australian Open for the last two years and they still have a chance to make it three in a row. The boys singles draw is currently into the round of 16 and there are still three Australian boys who have an opportunity to win the title. Keep a watch out over the next few days to see if one these boys can take the title. Australian tennis is going to be very strong in 5 years time if the juniors is anything to look by.
The ITF and Wilson Racquet Sports have extended their sponsorship agreement to include Wilson as the Official Ball of Davis Cup, Fed Cup and other ITF initiatives in a multi-year deal.
Wilson have been a major player with the Davis Cup since 2002. Under this new expanded agreement, Wilson will be the Official Ball to the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and the ITF’s junior team competitions at the under 14 and under 16 level. In addition, Wilson is the exclusive supplier of tennis rackets, shoes, clothing and accessories to the ITF Development Coaching Team.
“Wilson has been an outstanding partner for the ITF, sharing our vision for growing the game of tennis,” said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “Wilson’s involvement in Davis Cup, Fed Cup, ITF junior team competitions and the ITF Development Coaching Team has enhanced all of these areas and we are delighted that they will remain as our partners for many years to come.”
