The Nation Newspaper

Tag: International Tennis Federation (ITF)

  • Argentina given wild cards for 2019 Davis Cup finals

    Argentina and Great Britain, recent winners of the Davis Cup, were on Wednesday handed wild cards to compete in next year’s finals of the revamped competition.

    Argentina, 2016 victors, and Britain, who won the previous year, have been selected to join the four semi-finalists from this year’s edition in the climax to the 2019 event.

    The four semi-finalists are: champions France, finalists Croatia, Spain and United States.

    Those nations will be joined in the new week-long, 18-team finals in November 2019 by 12 more who will secure their places from dozen qualifying ties.

    The dozen qualifying ties are to be drawn on Wednesday in London and will be staged in February.

    Argentina and Britain were due to compete in the qualifiers but will now be spared that hurdle after the Davis Cup steering committee gave them a straight pass into the finals.

    Australia and Switzerland, the highest-ranked unseeded nations that lost in the 2018 World Group playoffs, will take their place as seeded nations in the qualifiers.

    Read Also: Two wins in a row for Nigeria’s D’Tigress, beat Argentina

    The makeover of the premier team event in men’s tennis has been made by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), in partnership with the investment group Kosmos.

    Kosmos is founded by Barcelona and Spain football player Gerard Pique.

    The steering committee has given wild cards to two nations with a rich Davis Cup history and a bit of star power.

    The committee is made up of Pique, former Spanish player Galo Blanco, ITF president David Haggerty and ITF vice president Rene Stammbach.

    Argentina, led by Juan Martin Del Potro, won their first title in 2016 in their fifth Davis Cup final while the British team won their 10th title thanks to an inspired performance from Andy Murray.

    Kosmos is promising to invest more than 90 million pounds into the Davis Cup and grassroots tennis.

    The idea of the revamp is to attract the biggest names to the finals, with both Murray and Del Potro fitting that bill.

    With Switzerland and Australia now seeded, it also improves the prospects of the likes of Swiss duo Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, and Australian Nick Kyrgios featuring in the finals.

    The last of the finals to be staged under the traditional format will see France attempting to defend their crown against Croatia in Lille on Nov. 23-25.

  • Nastase to be denied accreditation for French Open

    Nastase to be denied accreditation for French Open

    Former Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase will not be given accreditation for this year’s French Open, organisers said on Saturday.

    The 70-year-old is provisionally banned from all International Tennis Federation (ITF) events, after making allegedly racist and sexist comments during Romania’s Fed Cup tie against Britain last month.

    “Following the decision of his suspension by the @ITFTennis, Mr Ilie Nastase won’t be accredited for #RG17,’’ French Open organisers said on Twitter.

    Nastase, who courted controversy throughout his career during which he won the U.S. and French Opens, is also not welcome at this year’s Wimbledon championships.

    Romania’s Fed Cup captain was booted out of the tie against Britain last month for “unsportsmanlike’’ behaviour.

    The singles rubber between Britain’s Johanna Konta and Sorana Cirstea was briefly suspended after remarks made by Nastase, to Konta and British team captain Anne Keothavong.

    Nastase had already run into trouble during the World Group playoff tie in Constanta after making a derogatory comment about the unborn child of American Serena Williams, the 23-times grand slam singles champion.

  • Great Britain lose to hosts Romania in Fed Cup tie

    Great Britain on Sunday lost their Fed Cup World Cup Group II play-off in Romania, consigning them back to the Europe/Africa Zone.

    It was 1-1 after Saturday’s play, when host captain Ilie Nastase was banned for swearing at the umpire, Johanna Konta and her captain Anne Keothavong.

    On Sunday, Simon Halep won 6-1 6-3 against Konta to put Romania in front.

    Irina-Camelia Begu then beat Heather Watson 6-4 7-5 as Romania took an unassailable lead before the doubles.

    Konta was left in tears after Nastase’s conduct and, even though the world number seven still beat Sorana Cirstea on Saturday, she found Halep a tougher test.

    Halep, ranked fifth in the world, raced into a 4-0 lead as she made the most of her clay-court knowhow and broke to love in taking the first set in 27 minutes.

    Konta gave signs of a comeback by breaking Halep and taking a 3-1 lead in the second set.

    But the Romanian responded by impressively taking five games in a row to win the match.

    After that result, world number 113 Watson knew she had to win against 33rd-ranked Begu and she was involved in a tight match with plenty of quality and drama.

    There were five breaks of serve in the first set, which Begu took, but none in the second until Watson lost the seventh game.

    The Briton broke back but then lost her serve again at 5-5 and Begu served out for a match that lasted two hours and two minutes to secure victory for Romania.

    Cirstea claimed Konta had “overreacted” by crying in their match but the British number one has defended her actions.

    The incident that led to Nastase being dismissed on Saturday happened when Cirstea was 2-1 up in the second set.

    After Konta and Keothavong had complained of calling out from the crowd at 1-1, former world number one Nastase was involved in a discussion with officials.

    During this, he used foul language before verbally abusing the British player and her captain.

    He was sent off the court by referee Andreas Egli and, after initially taking a seat in the stands, was then escorted back to the locker room.

    Konta went 3-1 down after her serve was broken in the next game and was in tears before the umpire suspended play for about 25 minutes.

    “With all due respect to Sorana, she was not in my shoes at that end of the court being verbally threatened,” said the Briton. “Any abuse is not all right.

    “But when it’s a couple of metres away from you, screaming at you, I think that’s a different ball game.

    “It’s not something that you truly know how it affects you until you experience it, so I do believe she may have been slightly unaware of the events that happened.”

    Halep defended the crowd following her win on Sunday and, on Nastase — whose conduct is being investigated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), said “maybe he did mistakes”.

    “I was not there right on the court but I heard some things so I cannot defend anything here,” she added.

    “I don’t know exactly what happened but the people from ITF, they will know what they’re going to do.”

  • ITF World Junior Ranking: Quadre is highest ranked Nigerian

    ITF World Junior Ranking: Quadre is highest ranked Nigerian

    In September 2016, Oyinlomo Quadre was nowhere in the world ranking not to talk of African rating, but this week, she has become the highest ranked Nigerian junior tennis player listed among the top 400 in the world. She is now ranked 371 in the latest ranking released by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

    Also, the 13-year-old is considered the sixth rated U-14 female player in Africa while her profile continued to soar as she braced up to return to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) High-Performance Centre n Morocco.

    Quadre amassed 125 points to be ranked 371 in the world ranking of junior female players being the highest any Nigerian has achieved in recent times.

    According to national junior coach, Mohammed Ubale, the performance of Quadre has continued to bring honour to the country, as the youngster was able to retain her title in the U-14 event at the just concluded African Junior Championships (AJC) qualifiers held in Lome, Togo.

    “I am so excited about the feat achieved by Oyinlomo Quadre because she has been consistent since she started competing at international level. She hopes to return to the ITF High-Performance Centre in Morocco next month and this was facilitated by the immense support of the President, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Engr. Sani Ndanusa who agreed to offset more than 60percent of the fund she needed to return to the centre while her family raised the remaining 40percent,” he said.

    Ubale who led the 13-man team to the AJC qualifiers in Togo, believes the technical and tactical ability of Quadre have continued to give him an edge in most of the competitions.

    “I must admit that she is a special player with rare talent. This kind of success recorded will surely inspire more players to aim high. In any world tennis ranking, this is the best Nigeria ever achieved at any level in recent times. I must commend the NTF for their efforts at ensuring that our junior players are exposed to world class tournaments and the ranking of Quadre is the result of the support we are getting from the federation,” he added.

  • Nigeria draws Madagascar, 14 others in 2016 Davis Cup tournament

    Despite its late withdrawal from the 2015 edition of the Davis Cup tournament, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) soft-pedal on possible sanction for Nigeria after drawing the west African giant with highly-rated Madagascar, Morocco and 13 others in the Africa Zone Group III of the championship.

    It was few days to the kick-off of the 2015 edition of the tournament in Cairo, Egypt that Nigeria made it withdrawal known to the world tennis ruling body and there were speculations that the West African side would be penalised. But with the conduct of the draw, it is clear that Nigeria may not be sanctioned after all.

    However, Nigeria’s quest for promotion to Group II will continue again in 2016 as they are expected to battle Group II relegated sides, Madagascar and Morocco and 13 others for places in the elite division.

    According to ITTF, the 2016 edition of the Group III of the Africa zone will hold on the clay courts of the Antanarivo University in Madagascar on July 13 to 16 with 16 teams aiming for the two promotion slots available.

    Besides the top rated teams like host – Madagascar and Morocco, other nations expected at the four-day tournament are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo DRC, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Mozambique, Namibia and Rwanda.

    The 16 countries are expected to be drawn into four groups while the matches will be played in round robin format with the winners of each group engaging in play-off against each other to determine the two nations that will be promoted to Europe/Africa Zone Group II in 2017.

    Nigeria’s maiden appearance in the Davis Cup was in 1974, while the best putting for Nigeria was in 1988 and 1989 when it reached the semifinals stage in Group I.