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President’s Message
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this event, part of the 2011 Tennis Europe Junior Tour.
Now entering its third decade, the Tour has grown from 40 initial tournaments to the current level of well over 300 events. These tournaments offer international playing opportunities and a unified ranking system for many thousands of children from all over the world, across three age categories; 16, 14 and 12 & Under.
The appeal of Europe’s top junior tournaments is such that virtually every one of today’s top professional players participated on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour in their formative years.
Last year was an exciting one for the Tour, with the introduction of the online entry and withdrawal system, giving players greater freedom and responsibility in planning their competitive schedules. In 2011 we will see further benefits of this new technology, with enhanced web features made available for all players and fans.
However, none of this would be possible without the dedicated work of the many tournament organisers, committees, clubs and officials who work tirelessly each year to stage the events that make up the Tour. I would like to extend my warm gratitude to them, as well as to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of all the sponsors and volunteers, without whose generous support and hospitality many events would not be possible.
I’d also like to wish the best of luck to the players. I hope that this event will be a successful, educational and – most importantly – a fun experience for you!
Whether you are here to compete, to watch or to work at this event, I thank you for supporting the Tennis Europe Junior Tour, and wish you all an enjoyable week of tennis.
Jacques Dupre
President, Tennis Europe
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Stars Of Tomrrow
The Tennis Europe Junior Tour is the leading pan-European competitive forum for junior talent in any major sport. Jonathan Jobson reports
From its earliest tournaments into the 1970s and its official creation in 1990, the Tennis Europe Junior Tour has come to be universally recognised as the best starting point for a successful career in tennis. A string of world #1s, from Ivan Lendl and Steffi Graf to Roger Federer and Justine Henin chose this path, alongside non-Europeans such as Lindsay Davenport, Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian and Andy Roddick, all of who had an early taste of success on the courts of Europe’s premier junior events.
The increasingly professional organisation of the tournaments has meant that the Tennis Europe Junior Tour effectively serves as a dress rehearsal for life as a professional tennis player, with a cumulative ranking system, a season-ending Masters tournament, Player of the Year awards, online ranking information, calendars and the playing records of potential opponents.
The Tour has expanded from 43 tournaments in its first year to over 300 annual events for players of age categories 12, 14 and 16 & under. Care is taken that the focus is not solely on performance, with sightseeing tours, players parties and educational events held in tandem, ensuring a social and informative aspect to tournaments which allows players to focus on more than just their tennis and provides an excellent opportunity to learn about anti-doping, nutrition and training patterns, to name just a few topics.
Team events are some of the highlights of the season, as top players earn an early chance to represent their country at prestigious championships such as the Tennis Europe Winter Cups by HEAD, the European Summer Cups and the Tennis Europe Nations Challenge by HEAD. July’s European Junior Championships is without doubt the most sought-after prize for individual players, as past champions such as Novak Djokovic, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Martina Hingis and Boris Becker can attest.
As the tour goes from strength to strength, so does its appeal. Some 350,000 spectators attend Tennis Europe Junior Tour events each year to see around 10,000 young talents from over 100 countries take their first steps on the international tennis stage. Aside from extensive coverage at TennisEurope.org, reports about the Tour in over 780 newspapers and magazines and over 12,000 minutes of annual radio and TV airtime ensure that every day, people are learning about the latest players to follow in the footsteps of stars like Rafael Nadal, Andrew Murray, Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova in celebrating some of their earliest successes on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour.
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