Ivo Kaderka elected as President of Tennis Europe
Ivo Karderka has been elected as President of the European Tennis Federation (Tennis Europe) at the organisation’s Annual General Meeting.
Kaderka, who is also President of the Czech Tennis Federation, defeated Eva-Maria Schneider, of Germany, in the third round of voting by 45 votes to 39. In the previous round, the two candidates had been tied at 41 votes each. The third candidate, Finland’s Matti Virtanen, was eliminated in the first round of voting.
“I would like to thank everyone who voted for me, and even those who did not,” Kaderka said. “My goal is to unite European tennis. I believe that there are no big or small nations, just the European tennis family. I promise you that I will do my absolute best for all of you.”
The meeting was hosted by the Hellenic Tennis Federation in Heraklion, Crete, with a record 47 member nations either attending in person or joining a live broadcast of the proceedings.
In addition to the presidential election, the meeting also included elections for the Tennis Europe board, with five returning board members joined by three newly-elected board members.
Luisanna Fodde (ITA), Christiane Jolissaint (SUI), David Rawlinson (GBR), Eva-Marie Schneider (GER) and Evgeniy Zukin (UKR) were re-elected to the board. The three new members are Nikolina Babic (CRO), Razvan Itu (ROU) and Spyros Zannias (GRE). With four males and and four females elected to the board, Tennis Europe's board has achieved gender balance for the first time.
“Congratulations to Ivo Kaderka on his election as President of Tennis Europe and to the newly elected board. We are also delighted to see the gender balance on the new board,” ITF President David Haggerty said. “I look forward to working with President Kaderka and the Tennis Europe board.”
The former President, Vladimir Dmitriev, stepped down after serving one term at the helm of the organisation and was awarded the title of Honorary Life President.
“It has been an honour to spend the last three and a half years as President of Tennis Europe,” he said. “I am immensely proud of the progress made by the organisation during my tenure, and it has been a joy to serve alongside such an incredibly dedicated and active staff and Board of Management. I’d like to congratulate Ivo for his successful campaign, and I know that I am leaving the organisation in safe hands.”