Francesco Ricci re-elected ITF President

ITF PRESS RELEASE 23 September 2011: Francesco Ricci Bitti re elected ITF President The ITF announced that Francesco Ricci Bitti has been re-elected President of the International Tennis Federation for a fourth term (2011-15) at the 2011 ITF Annual General Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday 23 September. Over 270 delegates, partners and staff attended the AGM, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok, and hosted by the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand (LTAT) under its President H. E. Suwat Liptaplanop.
Elections also took place for the ITF Board of Directors for the period 2011-13. The following 13 candidates have been elected to the Board:

Ismail El Shafei (EGY) *
Jean Gachassin (FRA)
Lucy Garvin (USA) *
Jack Graham (CAN) *
Chris Kypriotis (BRA) *
Suwat Liptapanlop (THA)
Juan Margets (ESP) *
Roman Murashkovsky (RUS) *
Geoff Pollard (AUS) *
Stuart Smith (GBR) *
Rene Stammbach (SUI)
Jon Vegosen (USA)
Georg von Waldenfels (GER) *
* returning member
The AGM was officially opened by Yongyut Vichaidit, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, who welcomed the delegates to the city, and thanked both the ITF and LTAT for choosing Bangkok as the venue for this year’s meeting, and for their development of the sport in Thailand.
Changes to membership of the ITF include an increase in Class B shares for Paraguay, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and United Arab Emirates, and a transfer from Class C to Class B membership for Cambodia. There were also successful applications for Class C membership for Anguilla, Bonaire and Curacao. It was announced that suspensions have been lifted for Comores, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Nauru, but that Marshall Islands have been suspended.
There were 13 Awards for Services to the Game approved by the AGM. Madame Sun Jin Fang (CHN) was nominated by the ITF Board of Directors for an outstanding contribution to the 2008 Olympic Tennis Event, while Tony Nadal (ESP) was nominated by the ITF Coaches Commission.

Other awards went to Nasser Al Madani (UAE), Ogtay Asadov (AZE), Volodymyr Bogdanov (UKR), Nick Bollettieri (USA), Stig Ericson (SWE), Jean Michel Giraud (MRI), Anne Kremer (LUX), Leila Meskhi (GEO), Masaaki Morita (JPN), Rauza Islanova (RUS) and Per Frederik Wright (NOR).

Franklin Johnson, ITF Board member from the United States (2005-11), was made an Honorary Life Counsellor of the ITF.

“This has been an outstanding Annual General Meeting, hosted by the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand and its President Suwat Liptapanlop,” said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “I thank all the delegates who came to Bangkok and who work hard all year in support of tennis. They have elected an excellent new Board of Directors and I look forward to working with all of them to face the challenges of the next years. Thanks to the Thai Federation for their warm hospitality and great organization of this AGM.”

During the AGM, functions for delegates were hosted by the ITF, LTAT, Lawn Tennis Association, Fed Cup champions Italy and Davis Cup champions Serbia, as well as a full partners’ programme organized by the ITF and LTAT.

Thomas Konigsfeldt of the Danish Tennis Federation informed the delegates that the 2012 Annual General Meeting would be held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 11-13 July.