Meet the ITF World Tennis Tour Player Panel: Yuliana Lizarazo

Last month, the ITF announced the players elected to the newly-created ITF World Tennis Tour Player Panel. The members will sit on the Panel until the end of the 2021 season and for two-year terms thereafter.

We spoke to all the players on both the men's tennis and women's tennis panels, to find out about their tennis careers to date and their hopes for what they can achieve during their time as panel members. On the women's tennis panel we have already spoken Conny Perrin, Olivia Tjandramulia and Petra Januskova.

Our latest interviewee is Yuliana Lizarazo, a 27-year-old player from Colombia. Lizarazo has enjoyed plenty of success on the ITF World Tennis Tour, winning 10 singles and 13 doubles titles between 2010 and 2020. She has reached career-high WTA singles and doubles rankings of No. 335 and No. 358 respectively. Here's what she had to say...

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I started playing tennis at three and a half years old. Since I was little I was very passionate about this sport. I started competing in national tournaments and then in some international tournaments when I was 12. I started playing professional at 14 years old and mixed them with some junior tournaments. I was always away from home, travelling the world for tennis.

At 23, I retired from tennis and decided to study and change my lifestyle a little bit, but it only lasted for two years because I missed being on the court and competing. So I decided to try again and here I am! In my professional career, I have won 10 singles titles and 13 doubles titles

I think it is important to improve communication between the ITF and the players and I am happy to be part of the panel. I received a lot of support from the South American players and it is a responsibility to represent the players in the best way and be the voice of them.

I hope that I can play a part in improving the communication between the ITF and the players. Communication is very important! Decisions the ITF makes greatly affects the players and we all need to work together and take all the players into account.