Miguel this is a great post. The photos brought back great memories and I appreciate the nice words. You are right. This was the first ITF Worldwide Tennis Participation conference and it took place in Bath, UK from 19 – 25 June 2000. It did have a great impact and led to many initiatives including the rule change for 10 and under in 2010. The conference was organised in conjunction with the Lawn Tennis Association of Great Britain in the week prior to Wimbledon and around 300 delegates representing 80+ countries, including the 4 Grand Slams, attended. The ATP and WTA tour were also represented at the conference as were the Tennis industry who were able to exhibit during the conference.
I remember that the 5 day conference had the theme “More tennis… more often… more fun”, and was opened by ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti and the LTA President Malcolm Gracie. We had such a great ITF team working at the event including you, Miguel Crespo, Frank Couraud, Suresh Menon and Luca Santilli. The conference led to the creation of the ITF Intro to Tennis Taskforce in 2001 and to the launch of the successful ITF Play and Stay Campaign in 2007.
The best part of your post was seeing both of us looking so young in these photos. We haven’t changed much have we?!
