International Tennis Federation

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.

It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913. In 1924 it became the officially recognised organisation with authority to control lawn tennis throughout the world, with official 'ILTF Rules of Tennis'. In 1977 it dropped the word 'lawn' from its title, recognising that most tennis was not played on grass.

Originally based in Paris, its funds were moved to London, UK during World War II; From that time onwards the ILTF/ITF has been run from London. Until 1987, the ITF was based at Wimbledon, it then moved to Barons Court, near Queens Club, and then moved again in 1998 to the Bank of England Sports Ground, Roehampton. [ [http://www.itftennis.com/abouttheitf/abouttheitf/history.asp History of the ITF] ]

Its official annual is "The ITF Year", describing the activities of the ITF over last 12 months. This replaced "World of Tennis".

Function

The ITF operates the three major national team competitions in the sport, the Davis Cup for men, the Fed Cup for women and the Hopman Cup, mixed teams. The ITF is also responsible for organizing the four Grand Slams: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

While the ATP Tour and WTA Tour control most other high-level professional tournaments, the ITF also organizes the lowest tier tournaments in the world of professional tennis. On the men's side, this is known as the ITF Men's Circuit, consisting of one-week tournaments called "Futures". The ITF also ran four-week satellite tournaments of roughly the same quality level, but they were discontinued after the 2006 season. Virtually every male professional player started by playing on the ITF Men's Circuit.

The ITF is responsible for maintaining an international under-18 junior circuit for boys and girls.

ITF World Champions

eniors

Juniors

Source [http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/history/juniorworldchamps/index.asp ITF Site]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.itftennis.com/ International Tennis Federation site]