Dubai: Tennis Emirates, the governing body for tennis in the UAE, is frantically pressing forward towards reform starting off with a development seminar for countries in the West and Central Asia region on March 2.
David Haggerty, President of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) will be one of the top officials attending the day-long seminar that primarily focuses on development of tennis at zonal and regional levels.
Others confirmed for the day-long seminar to be held at the Al Fares conference room at the Roda Al Bustan Hotel on Thursday will be Anil Khanna, President of Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), Miguel Crespo, Manager, Participation and Coaching at ITF and Amir Borghei, Development Officer for West and Central Asia. Representatives from all member nations from the West and Central Asia regions have been invited to attend.
There are a few existing discrepancies that is restraining the growth of the sport in the region. Though venues like Dubai and Doha boast of being among the best tournaments on the ATP and WTA, much still needs to be done to ensure a steady line of new players over the years.
Over a period of time, officials connected with the sport have debated on the two ends of tennis, but solutions to these issues have been far from resolved. “We have the biggest and the best tennis tournaments, but what is the benefit locally? We need more support at all levels, especially at the grassroots to ensure that we change the system from recreation tennis to performance tennis so that we can have the next generation of local players coming through,” Sarah Ahmad Baker, General Secretary, Tennis Emirates, told Gulf News.
“The basic idea of the seminar is to find a way to solve our tennis problems. We have the best tournaments, and now we need to have some of the best tennis players as well. The ITF has laid a blueprint for producing players and we need to seriously find ways and means to adapt this to this region,” she added.
The UAE’s Omar Behroozian — handed out a wild card at this week’s Dubai Tennis Championships — was crowned the Gulf champion at the end of 2016, while Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur and Oman’s Fatma Nabhani are among the few women who have been pushing tennis boundaries among the women.
ITF President Haggerty officially unveiled ‘ITF 2024’, a new strategic plan for the world governing body creating a long-term plan for sustainable growth of the sport all over the world. The American outlined the ITF’s mission to develop, grow and promote tennis around the world through good governance, integrity and trust, inclusiveness, innovation, ambition and collaboration.
“The ITF has got its strategy in place. It is now a question of getting maximum benefits for all countries in the region,” Baker said.
“The seminar will be a two-way street, where we will pose our tennis problems and the ITF will try and come up with suggestions that may eventually solve our problems. In a place like the UAE, we want to do something for the sport — irrelevant of whether those benefiting are nationals or expatriates,” she insisted.
