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International
Tennis Federation
Tennis Development Department
ITF Monthly E-Mail Newsletter for Coaches, Year 5, Issue 5, May 2004
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The ITF Development Department is pleased to welcome you to the May
2004 edition of its ITF Monthly Email Newsletter.
In an effort to keep you informed and updated on ITF coaching
matters worldwide, in this issue of the newsletter you will find:
* Late Entries Approved for Olympics
* Development Events
* Asian Tennis News
* African Tennis News
* Australia and Turkey to host 2005 ITF Vets events
* US Open Series is launched
* Wheelchair Tennis News
* News from National Associations and others
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LATE ENTRIES APPROVED FOR OLYMPICS
The ITF Olympic Committee has approved late 'By Country' entries
from Chile, Luxembourg and Venezuela for the Tennis Event at the
2004 Olympic Games in Athens. A total of 80 nations have now entered
the event 'By Country' with the endorsement of their National
Olympic Committees. Of those 80 nations, 69 indicated they would
nominate players for the men's events and 58
indicated they would enter the women's events. A total of 52
countries were represented at the 2000 Olympic Games Tennis Event in
Sydney. For further information, visit www.itftennis.com/olympics.
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DEVELOPMENT EVENTS
25 April - 1 May: Coaches Course, Quito, Ecuador
27 April - 5 May: OS Level 1 Coaches Course, Niamey, Niger
28 April - 8 May: ITF/Tennis Europe 16 & Under Development
Championships, Novisad, Serbia & Montenegro
3-14 May: ITF/OS Pre Level I Coaches Course, Blantyre, Malawi
5-15 May: ITF/Tennis Europe 14U Development Championships, Yerevan,
Armenia
6-9 May: 10th Coaches Symposium, Poland
10 - 19 May: Level 1 Coaches Course, Montevideo, Uruguay
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ASIAN TENNIS NEWS
Hong Kong Officiating School
Officials from all over Asia/Oceania and Europe met in Hong Kong for
the first Level 3 Officiating School of the year on 22-25 April
2004. The School was led by Mike Morrissey (ITF Administrator of
Officiating) and Stefan Fransson (ITF Rules and Regulations
Officer), together with Georgina Clark (WTA Tour) and Norm Chryst
(ATP).
The School was held in Hong Kong as part of ITF Officiating's Five
Year Plan to improve officiating in Asia. More Level 2 and Level 3
Schools will be held in Asia in this period which, together with
other initiatives, aim to significantly increase the number of
certified officials in the region.
Congratulations to the following successful participants:
New Bronze Badge Chair Umpires: Damien Dumusois (FRA), Dion
Fernandes (NZL), Payal Jain (IND), Matthew McAleer (AUS), Walid
Semaan (LIB)
New Silver Badge Referees: Asitha Attygala (SRI), Vladimir Erg
(SCG), Sheetal Iyer (IND), Thomas Michel (SUI)
New Silver Badge Chief Umpires: Sergei Dubrov (BLR), Wolfgang
Kellner (AUT), Nori Okamura (JPN), Franck Sabatier (FRA)
After discussions with COSAT, it has been agreed that the next Level
3 Officiating School will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on
20-23 October 2004. Application forms are available to National
Associations on the ITF Officiating website, www.tennisofficial.com.
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AFRICAN TENNIS NEWS
27th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships
The 27th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships ended on April the
17th in Cairo after another successful week for both the
participating teams and tournament organisers. The penultimate day
was one of unexpected drama and tension as the finals of the 14 &
under and 16 & under events took place. The 14 & under boys' final
saw local favourite Mohammed Safwat cruise
through his match against Michael Thompson of South Africa to secure
a convincing 60 60 win. The South African was overpowered and his
usual aggressive and consistent game floundered as Safwat used his
power game to move Thompson around the court to finish the points at
the net.
Understandably Thompson was upset with the result, while Safwat was
overcome with joy and was congratulated by all his teammates who
provided vociferous support throughout. Meanwhile on the other side
of the Smash Tennis Academy,
Safwat's teammate, May El Werdani, had a very different experience
in the girls' 14 & under final. The large local crowd were sure of
another Egyptian victory with top seeded El Werdani leading 64 42
against No. 2 seed Olfa Dhaoui of Tunisia. However Dhaoui had other
plans and grew in confidence as El Werdani made a number of mistakes
under the intense pressure of the
expectations of the home crowd. After Dhaoui broke serve to make the
score 3-4, the Egyptian did not win a game until 3-0 down in the
third set. However she failed to recover her composure and the
Tunisian clinched the third set and the title 46 64 61.
The Tunisian winning streak continued when Wael Kilani, seeded No.
2, overpowered defending AJC 16 & under champion and top seed, Reda
El Amrani of Morocco 36 63 61 in the boys' 16 & under final. The
shock defeat caught the Moroccan team off guard, particularly as
their promising player led by a set and a break. However Kilani
broke serve back straight away and used this momentum to take the
set 63. He proceeded to cruise through the third set, breaking the
Moroccan's serve three times to capture the trophy.
The Moroccan visitors had some cause for celebration after Fatim
Zahra El Allami's success in the girls' 16 & under event. The
Moroccan No. 1 seed defeated Elze Potgieter of South Africa
convincingly 61 62. Potgieter was hampered by a back injury, and
despite wearing a back brace, was inhibited by her lack of movement
on the court. El Allami used this to her advantage
and proceeded to move her opponent around the court. The final day
of the Championships saw the finals of the 18 & under boys' and
girls' events. It provided much of the same excitement and drama as
last year, since the boys' final once again determined which nation
would lift the African Junior championships team trophy. Last year
Fritz Wolmarans (RSA) defeated Mehdi Ziadi of Morocco in a tensely
contested and emotional match to secure the overall team trophy for
South Africa. This year's final saw a similar situation as top
seeded Ziadi needed to beat No. 2 seed Kevin Anderson of South
Africa to secure the team trophy for Morocco.
The match started off with long baseline rallies, and with both
players serving well, there were no early breaks. Ziadi finally
broke Anderson at 5-5 in the first set and held on to take the set
75. The second set started in the same fashion until the Moroccan
once again broke the Anderson serve to lead 5-3. With nerves taking
over, Ziadi started playing conservatively instead of his usual
attacking forehand game and the set went into a tiebreak. Anderson
went up by two mini-breaks, before Ziadi showed some
resolve and used the support from his teammates to take the second
set 76(6), and with it the coveted boys' 18 & under AJC title.
The all-Egyptian girls' 18 & under final between Magy Nader Aziz and
Ola Abou Zekri, seeded Nos. 1 and 5 respectively, proved to be a
much more straightforward match. The two have competed against each
other many times but, on this occasion, Nader Aziz used her strong
forehand and good angles to dominate the points. Nader Aziz won the
match 62 61 and hopes to benefit
from increased confidence when she plays the European clay court
season and Junior Roland Garros this summer.
The final day also saw the play-off ties between the four most
successful nations in each age-group to determine the qualifying
nations for the World Junior Tennis Finals and Junior Davis Cup by
BNP Paribas and Junior Fed Cup Finals. This year Africa has two
places in the finals of each event. Egypt's boys' and girls' teams
qualified for the World Junior Tennis Finals in
Prostejov, Czech Republic in August, along with South Africa boys
and Tunisia girls. Morocco and Tunisia won through to the Junior
Davis Cup finals, while Egypt and Morocco advanced to the Junior Fed
Cup finals, both events taking place in Barcelona, Spain in late
September. After the finals, the closing ceremony took place on
centre court at the Smash Tennis Academy
and the placed players in each category received their trophies from
the VIPs in attendance, who included Dr Ali Helal, the Egyptian
Minister of Youth, Mr Francesco Ricci Bitti, ITF President, Mr Paul
Chingoka, President of CAT, and Mr Mohamed Halawa, President of the
Egyptian Tennis Federation. For full results from the championships,
please visit the ITF juniors
website www.itftennis.com/juniors.
Tarak Cherif becomes new CAT President
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Confederation of African
Tennis (CAT) met last weekend in Cairo and was attended by ITF
President Francesco Ricci Bitti and ITF Executive Director of
Development Dave Miley in conjunction with the African Junior
Championships.
Following the Executive Committee meeting, Paul Chingoka (ZIM)
announced his immediate resignation as President of CAT, a position
he was elected to last year in South Africa. This resignation was
accepted by the Executive Committee and ratified by the CAT AGM. In
accordance with its constitution, the AGM then approved and ratified
the appointment of Tarak Cherif of
Tunisia as the new President of CAT.
The CAT AGM agenda was discussed and some points including financial
reports were deferred to a next CAT meeting in Barcelona during the
ITF AGM. The most important decision proposed by the Executive
Committee and ratified
unanimously by the AGM was to move the administrative activities of
CAT to London on a provisional basis.
While the ITF President was in Cairo, he attended many meetings
including one with Dr. Alie El Din Hilal, the Minister of Youth and
Sport for Egypt, and the President of the International Handball
Federation, Mr. Hassan Moustafa. The dignitaries also participated
in the prize giving ceremony for the African Junior Championships,
won by players from Morocco, Egypt and
South Africa.
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AUSTRALIA AND TURKEY TO HOST 2005 ITF VETS EVENTS
The ITF Board of Directors and ITF Vets Committee have announced
that the ITF Vets Team Competitions and World Championships will be
held in Australia and Turkey in 2005.
Tennis Australia will host Group A category events for men and women
aged 35-55 over two weeks in spring 2005. The Group B categories
will return to Turkey for a second time when the events for men aged
60-85 and women aged 60-75 will be held in Antalya on the Turkish
Riviera in the autumn.
Both nations have considerable experience in hosting the ITF Vets
Team Competitions and World Championships. Australia has staged
these events four times while Turkey, in addition to holding the
Group B age category for the first time in 2003, will also play host
to the Group A events this year starting 3 May at the Club Ali Bey
Manavgat. Results from this competition will be published daily on
www.itftennis.com/vets.
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US OPEN SERIES IS LAUNCHED
The USTA has announced the launch of the US Open Series. The Series
is made up of ten summer hard-court tournaments leading to the US
Open, thereby creating a six-week summer tennis season for ATP and
WTA Tour professional tournaments in North America. A television
agreement has been signed with broadcaster ESPN, who will provide a
regular weekly schedule of live
broadcasts in prime-viewing time slots for US Open Series events. In
addition, CBS Sports and NBC will televise select weekend coverage.
The combined live national coverage of 100 hours of US Open Series
events and 140 hours of US Open broadcasts on CBS Sports and USA
Network represent a record 240 hours of professional tennis coverage
over eight weeks during the summer.
Players competing in the US Open Series tournaments will be
competing for bonus prize money at the US Open. Effective in 2005,
the men's and women's winner of the US Open Series will play for
double prize money at the US Open. For 2004, the two winners of the
US Open Series will receive one and one-half times the prize money
they would otherwise receive at the US Open.
In addition, the second and third placed finishers will also receive
bonus prize money based on their US Open performance.
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WHEELCHAIR TENNIS NEWS
The latest issue of the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Coaches Review is now
on the ITF wheelchair tennis website:
http://www.itfwheelchairtennis.com/asp/wheelchair/publications/coachesreview.asp.
2004 will be a very busy year for coaches involved in wheelchair
tennis with the Paralympic Games in Athens in September and several
coaches ndertaking work for the ITF on the Silver Fund and
Paralympic projects.
In this issue Louis Lamontagne (CAN) continues his series of
articles on wheelchair tennis doubles. Taco Nijhoff (NED) shares his
experiences of working with the Sri Lanka Tennis Association to
improve the design and manufacture of the locally made tennis
wheelchairs. Playing in the heat ill have particular relevance at
the Paralympic Games in Athens. Babette Pluim (NED) considers some
of the factors that coaches and players need to consider
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NEWS FROM NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND OTHERS
www.sportlearningsystems.com : The Induced Learning System for
Tennis teaches tennis instantly. It consists of
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stroke. When they are worn on the hand and forearm, these devices
stabilise the arm and racquet in the ideal hitting position for each
stroke. Consequently, they induce correct muscle memory, correct bio
mechanics and a consistent point of contact, all in real time. The
ILS comes with a book and the Instant Tennis Video. The ILS is
endorsed by Doug MacCurdy, the renowned tennis expert. Those
interested in the purchase/marketing of this
revolutionary new product should contact: salem@comsats.net.pk
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Dave Miley and Miguel Crespo- Authors
Machar Reid - Editor
International Tennis Federation
Tennis Development Department
ITF Monthly E-Mail Newsletter for Coaches is published monthly.
International Tennis Federation
Tennis Development Department
c/o Miguel Crespo or Machar Reid
c/ Pérez Báyer, 11, 10º A
46002 Valencia
Spain
E-mail addresses: dualde@xpress.es , m.reid@servitel.es
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