Tennis development took centre stage on day two of the 2019 ITF Conference and AGM as nations were presented with the major findings of the ITF Global Tennis Report, and the Chinese Tennis Association received the 2019 Global Organisation of Distinction Award from the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin was on hand to present the award for a third year, having honoured Tennis Cambodia at the 2017 AGM in Vietnam and Kooyong Tennis Club at the 2018 AGM in Orlando.

As he announced the 2019 award winner, Martin pointed to China’s achievements at both the elite and grass-roots levels, from the emergence of over 19 million recreational players to their success at the Olympics, winning women’s doubles gold in 2004, and Li Na’s induction into the Hall of Fame in July.

“The Hall of Fame represents the history of our sport and we have three primary words that define our work: preserve, celebrate and inspire,” Martin said. “The Global Organisation of Distinction Award is presented to a deserving organisation or facility with a distinguished track record in service and contributions to the sport globally.

“The Chinese Tennis Association has, yes, a short track record, but also a very distinguished one in growing the sport. The CTA has invested strategically in events, coaching education, grass-roots participation and player development, and earlier this summer Li Na became the first Chinese athlete to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the sport’s ultimate honour.”

CTA vice-president Liu Wenbin accepted the award from Martin, China’s second from the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2019 following Li’s induction alongside fellow two-time Grand Slam singles champions Mary Pierce and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in July.

“Li Na’s induction to the International Tennis Hall of Fame was not only an honour for herself, but for tennis in China and for the whole of Asia,” Liu said.

“This award is in recognition for the efforts we’ve made to fulfil and realise our mission to make the sport of tennis the fastest growing sport in China. And we are committed to making even greater efforts to make greater contributions to the world of tennis.

“I would like to share this honour with all of you here, the national federations.”

Earlier on Thursday, the ITF Development team presented the progress made in global tennis development, made possible by the unprecedented levels of funding made available by the ITF’s member associations.

Executive Director for Development Luca Santilli pointed to the ITF World Tennis Number, the Worldwide Participation Conferences and the first ITF Global Tennis Report – distributed to member nations ahead of the AGM – as major steps forward in federation and national associations’ insight into the tennis landscape.

“Now, with the Global Tennis Report, we have a benchmark of the tennis landscape for the first time, enabling us to be ambitious and aspiring to grow the worldwide tennis community from 87 million today, to 120 million by 2030,” Santilli said.

“The report is a key tool in achieving this. The culmination of two years of work between the ITF Tennis Development department and 195 national tennis associations has given us our sport’s largest ever participation study.”

The report produced a series of key findings, including a global 53%-47% male-female divide among the world’s 87 million tennis players – which represents 1.17% of the global population, playing at 71,000 tennis clubs and on 489,000 courts.

Other findings will help steer future initiatives within the sport, including the discovery that of the world’s 164,000 tennis coaches, 21% are female, while the average time for a top-100-ranked junior to reach the top 100 in the professional ranks is 300.2 weeks for players on the ATP Tour and 222.6 weeks on the WTA Tour.

“We are now in a position to create benchmarks for specific elements within a global tennis landscape that can be used to set realistic participation goals and measure retention levels,” Santilli added. “It will also enable the ITF to benchmark each nation’s core development components, both for participation and performance, juniors and pros.”