Copenhagen, Denmark, July 16, 2012: The formal part of the ITF Annual General Meeting, attended by 220 delegates, partners and staff, was officially opened on Friday by Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, accompanied by Wimbledon doubles champion, Frederik Nielsen.
Crown Prince Frederik said, “Tennis is a game that I have treasured since I was a child. Denmark has a rich tradition in tennis with one of our greatest players, Kurt Nielsen reaching the Wimbledon Final in 1953 and 1955 and Caroline Wozniacki, who achieved the No. 1 ranking. Now, Frederik Nielsen, Kurt’s grandson, has won the Wimbledon doubles title.”
The Crown Prince continued, praising the work of the Danish Tennis Association and the ITF and, in particular, mentioning the Play and Stay Programme, Tennis10s and TennisExpress. He asked the ITF to take care of the game of tennis, which is “dear to all of us and especially to me.”
Danish Tennis Association Henrik Klitvad also spoke, commenting that his organisation had been planning this meeting for four years and welcoming everyone to Denmark.
In an important change to the Davis Cup regulations, the AGM approved amendments to Appendix F (Minimum Standards for the Organisation of Davis Cup ties) that included increasing the minimum seating capacity required for semifinal ties to 8,000 and requiring that semifinals must be staged in one of the top-ranked cities in the host country.
The AGM approved similar amendments to Appendix G (Minimum Standards for the Organisation of all World Group and World Group II ties) in the Fed Cup regulations, but did not increase stadium capacities required.
The AGM rejected an amendment to the Constitution recommended by the Board to increase the size of the Board from thirteen to fourteen members with two guaranteed places for Asia.
The AGM approved the extension of the Team Identification Rule in both Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas to every level of the competitions.
The AGM also approved recommendations from the Rules of Tennis Committee regarding on-court coaching and non-commercial marks of sanctioning bodies on the lower part of the net.
The AGM voted to increase the number of shares for Chinese Taipei from three to five but did not approve the same voting increase for Iran. The AGM voted to suspend Class B members Angola and Congo and Class C member Congo DPR for non-payment of subscriptions for two years.
There were seven Awards for Services to the Game approved by the AGM for Dr. Ernst Wolner of Austria, Koji Watanabe of Japan, Mahesh Bhupathi of India, Vladimir Lazarev of Russia, Sergio Elias of Chile and Petra Pichalova-Langrova of Czech Republic. The AGM also approved an Award for Services to the Game for Alberto Riba (ESP) recommended by the ITF Coaches Commission.
The President informed the AGM that the Board of Directors had decided to create a panel to study governance of the ITF.
“This has been an outstanding Annual General Meeting, hosted by the Danish Tennis Association and its President Henrik Klitvad,” said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “On behalf of the ITF Board of Directors, I want to thank all the delegates who came to Copenhagen and who work hard all year in support of tennis. Thanks to the Danish Tennis Association for their warm hospitality and great organisation of this AGM.”
During the AGM, functions for delegates were hosted by the ITF, Danish Tennis Association,, Lawn Tennis Association, Fed Cup champions Czech Republic and Davis Cup champions Spain, as well as a full partners’ programme organised by the ITF and the Danish Tennis Association..
Jean Gachassin, President of the French Tennis Federation, informed the delegates that the ITF would celebrate its Centenary Annual General Meeting in Paris, the city where it was founded in 1913. Dates for the meeting are 10-12 July 2012. —– ITF/Photo: Danish Tennis Federation
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