French NTC first to receive ITF's Gold Level recognition

The International Tennis Federation has awarded Gold Level status to the Federation Francaise de Tennis’ National Tennis Centre in Paris, the first NTC to receive the programme’s top accolade.

ITF president David Haggerty joined FFT president Bernard Giudicelli to present the award and unveil the Gold Level plaque at the entrance to the French NTC, which will bear the hallmark for the next four years.

“This recognition is not merely about the bricks and mortar that constitute a facility entitled a National Training Centre – it is more,” Haggerty said during the award ceremony. “It is about creating the systems and programmes that enable a nation to focus on producing coaches, players and leaders.

“I am very pleased to say that the Federation Francaise de Tennis has shown the way for all nations, shown what can be achieved, shown how continually striving for excellence reaps rewards by being the first nation to be awarded the Gold Recognition Level.”

In 2018, the ITF and several leading tennis nations established the criteria and minimum standards for NTCs to ensure quality standards worldwide.

ITF recognition is based on a series of criteria and minimum standards at Gold, Silver and Bronze levels. Applicant nations are required to provide documentary evidence and submit to an inspection of their NTC that demonstrates the systems and procedures in place in five key areas – facilities and equipment, management, coaching team, sports science and medicine, and player programmes.

For those developing nations who aspire to achieve such recognition, the ITF offers help in the form of Facility Grants, visits from development officers and ITF experts, and provision of ITF-approved materials on the running of a national tennis centre and effective programmes.

“We do recognise that many nations face funding issues within their countries,” Haggerty said. “Our hope is that this recognition programme will be an incentive, potentially a catalyst to release government funding – a goal they can strive for – which along the way will benefit not only themselves but all nations contributing to our global tennis family, producing systems and players that will contribute directly to international tennis.

“ITF can and will continue to contribute millions of dollars every year on worldwide development initiatives as do the Grand Slam nations through the Grand Slam Development fund.  But we need to encourage nations to think bigger, to aim higher, to be stronger, to create independence.  We need to encourage them to take larger steps and through this recognition programme, we offer help to developing countries to better reach these levels.”