Casey Dellacqua is a former professional tennis player who reached No. 26 in the WTA singles rankings and No. 3 in doubles. She is now a renowned commentator, but also the Women and Girls Lead with Tennis New South Wales.

Dellacqua is keynote speaker at the ITF World Participation Conference, which takes place virtually next week from Tuesday 19 – Thursday 21 July 2022 (daily from 1100-1330 (BST / GMT+1)  - for more information and to register click here.

She is among a host of speakers involved in the event who together will be discussing participation in the game. Dellacqua will also share her unique insights into how women and girls around the world can have further opportunities, on and off court, within tennis.

As a preview to the conference – the fourth of its kind to be hosted by the ITF – and to provide insight into some of the material to be covered, Casey took part in a short Q&A with itftennis.com.

Why is the ITF World Participation Conference and the bringing together of the global tennis community to discuss participation so important?

I think it’s so important for us as a tennis community across the globe to really make sure that we unite, get together, talk and discuss barriers, challenges, successes and even failures because it is important to share these ideas across all disciplines of tennis. That is why I am really excited to be a part of it because in Australia, since I retired, I have been working really hard in the women’s and girls’ space to give women and girls as many opportunities as possible, on and off the court. I am really excited to share that with the global tennis community.

How much are you looking forward to contributing to the ongoing conversation around participation with the overriding ambition being the ITF’s target of 120 million – approximately another 30 million – playing the game by 2030?

I am really excited to share my thoughts and ideas and the work I have done in Australia with Tennis Australia, beginning a few years back when we developed our women and girl’s strategy. We’ve really been able to get some traction and make some gains and, as I say, I think it is so important for the tennis communities across the world to unite. I am going to be really proud to share with the rest of the world a few thoughts and ideas from Australia on things that have really worked well and been successful, and some things that perhaps haven’t worked so well.

What first attracted you to the sport of tennis and what ultimately made you fall in love with the sport which has played such a major role in your life?

Tennis is my life and, even from a young age, tennis was all I knew. I actually grew up in a little tennis club in Perth, Western Australia. My mum and my nan were both volunteers, so I came from a background of having parents and grandparents who volunteered within the sport. It is my biggest passion. I played at a very high level – at the high-performance level – but for me this whole piece around participation and getting young girls to love the game and have ambitions to be a professional player, and also see the opportunity that tennis can provide off the court, is so important. It stems from my nan and my mum, that is why I am so passionate about women and girls in tennis.

How do you view the tennis landscape currently in terms of participation? Do you feel it is an inclusive sport for everybody regardless of age, ability, gender and physical ability?

I think tennis is doing a lot of great work in the inclusivity space but there is always more that can be done. Seeing a lot of the other sports doing different things with their engagement and different minority groups, it is important to make sure our sport is open and welcome for all, and people feel comfortable coming to our sport. I think we are doing really well, but I think we can keep looking to do more and more. We’re fortunate because tennis is one of those sports you can play from a young age until you’re much older, you can play at all different types of level and there are systems in place to enable people to do that. That is also my biggest passion, to make sure we engage those different communities to make sure they feel welcome in our sport.

In terms of participation, what do you think the sport gets right and what do you think the sport needs to improve upon?

During Covid, because tennis is a sport you can play while socially distanced, in Australia we have seen participation numbers improve, which is fantastic. We want to leverage that and make sure we continue to do great work in that space. With tennis, I think we have such an advantage because you can play the sport as an individual, you can play as a doubles pair and find clubs that cater for your needs, whether it be social or competitive play or somewhere to go for coaching. I think, as a whole, we have so much to offer and, as I say, tennis has been my whole life and I know what it has given me and I really hope that we can have things in place so girls, boys, women and men right across the world can have the same opportunities.

How do you view the tennis landscape in terms of opportunities for women and girls and how important is it that opportunities exist for women and girls to further their career, both on and off court?

I still believe that women are under-represented, I’m talking at club level in terms of being presidents with the tendency being for women to do jobs such as secretarial roles. I would really love to see more women being presidents of our local clubs. That’s a big piece of the Tennis Australia women and girls’ strategy, making sure that off court women have opportunities, and we have some great programmes in place which I’m happy to share. We’re doing some great work, but I think it is really important that we continue because we have so many great girls out there who love the game. They may not go on to be professional players, but it is vital we have offerings for them to make sure they stay in our sport, and get to enjoy a great life in tennis, whether that be in participation, performance or whatever it may be.