Preview: 2024 ITF Masters World Team Champs for those aged 65-85+
Only five months after the last edition of the ITF Masters World Championships, the latest flagship event on the ITF World Tennis Masters Tour kicks-off at Ali Bey Club, Manavgat, Turkiye on Sunday.
The annual tournament for players in the 65-and-over through to the 85-and-over age category promises to be a festival of high-quality tennis, national pride and camaraderie. The 2024 ITF Masters World Team Championships get underway on 10 March in Antalya and conclude on Friday 15 March.
The 43rd edition of the event features a host of top players, including multiple returning world champions. The 2024 team event will see more than 400 players representing 26 nations, with 120 teams battling for honours.
In the women’s competition, Australia will be looking to defend their crown in the Kitty Godfree Cup (65+), with the USA hoping to avenge their narrow defeat in the competition last year.
In the Althea Gibson Cup (70+) and Angela Mortimer Cup (85+), the USA are defending champions and return with strong teams to keep up the title push.
France, meanwhile, will seek to keep hold of the Queen’s Cup (75+) and Doris Hart Cup (80+), in which they defeated the USA in both competitions in 2023.
On the men’s side, Australia return with the victorious team that defeated the USA in the 2022 and 2023 Britannia Cup (65+).
France held off the challenge of yet another USA gold medal push in the 2023 Jack Crawford Cup (70+), and will try to keep hold of the silverware this year.
In the remaining competitions, it will take something special to wrestle the trophies away from the current champions.
Spain have claimed gold in the last two years of the Bitsy Grant Cup (75+), while the Americans have performed the same feat in the last two Gardnar Mulloy Cup (80+) and Lorne Main Cup (85+).
The ITF Masters World Individual Championships in the same age categories follows the team event and runs from 16-23 March.
Each day there will be a live stream from both the ITF Masters World Team and Individual Championships.
Click here for further information on Masters Tennis, including how to get involved.