When Cecilia Ancalmo, the ITF’s Development Officer for Central America, was reviewing Guatemala’s 2020 end-of-year Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI) report, something immediately leapt off the page. 

The data showed that the top-ranked players in three of the four age-group categories were not from the capital, Guatemala City, as has often been the case previously, but from more rural communities.   

Ronaldo Cotom from Suchitepequez, Alison Oliva of Escuintla and Carlos Ramirez from Retalhuleu were the best-performing players in the under-12 boys’, under-12 girls’ and under-14 boys’ age groups respectively. 

Dig a little deeper and the statistics are even starker. In the 12-and-under age group, 21 of the top 40 boys and girls were from outside of the capital city, while in the 14-and-under age group that combined figure was 12, a little lower but still noteworthy. 

The history of this can be traced back more than a decade to when the Guatemalan government encouraged national federations to widen their sphere of influence and develop their sports throughout the country.  

From there, the Guatemala Tennis Federation underwent a programme of decentralisation, which began under then-president Diego Pulido in 2007 and saw numerous tennis associations created across the nation, initially in San Marcos, Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango, Jalapa, Escuintla and Izabal y Zacapa.

These associations worked to establish tennis courts within the main cities of Guatemala’s departamentos – the equivalent of US states – before creating competition structures, recruiting deliverers and developing their coaching skills.

There are currently 20 associations in operation, each with at least one court, while there are 28 courts in total outside of the capital city. Incidentally, this number is set to increase with a court and 2 mini tennis courts – built with the support of an ITF Facilities Grant – to be constructed in Peten during 2021.

The decentralisation programme on show in their nation was an initiative conceived and delivered by the Guatemala Tennis Federation and supported by the ITF through the JTI, Coach Education Programme, facilities, player and tournament grants and ITF/Grand Slam Development Fund touring teams.  

“We have involved the entire country in development and given equal importance in all our departments. With equipment and coaches’ education, this has made us grow in all aspects at national level,” Tulio Davila, president of the Guatemala Tennis Federation told itftennis.com.

Ancalmo was appointed to her position as Central American development officer in 2009 and has witnessed most of this progress first-hand and is in no doubt about the impact and significance of this long-term, coordinated plan.  

“Tennis changes lives,” Ancalmo told itftennis.com.  

“When you see the figures, see kids from remote areas doing well and see the impact on communities, it is both gratifying and motivating. It also keeps us wanting to achieve more and ask, ‘what else can we do to bring about the change which our sport can bring?’ 

“In Guatemala, some of the places outside of the capital city are very rural, so the work which has gone into this programme, it’s structure and how it has evolved is very impressive. 

“The work has paid off and it is a good feeling that the Guatemala Tennis Federation has accomplished this because it was a goal of the national development programme.

“The uniqueness with Guatemala is that growth has been maintained. A lot of the time we see efforts start and then political change results in different priorities and what has been started then stops.

“The work in Guatemala has been ongoing for some time and it’s now achieving significant progress. It is not something which has happened by coincidence and if it wasn’t for this work the kids who are doing well and succeeding within their development programmes would have been lost to the game.” 

The JTI – the 14-and-under development programme which provides increased opportunities for participation and identifies talent for focused development – operated by the Guatemala Tennis Federation has contributed considerably to the decentralisation policy.

During 2020 alone, 2,757 Guatemalan children – 56 per cent of which were girls (1,552) – participated in the programme (as an aside, 55 per cent of all Tennis10s competition entries during 2020 were also girls).

Meanwhile, since 2013, over 30 players from Guatemala have attained an ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors ranking, having been introduced to the sport through the JTI.

The JTI ensures participants have opportunities to compete locally and then, depending on progression, nationally and potentially internationally, allowing boys and girls to strive for things which would have been unobtainable otherwise.  

Whether that be overseas travel, the potential for a National Olympic Committee scholarship or being inspired to compete at events such as the Central American and Caribbean Games, doors which once appeared shut are suddenly wide open. 

Ancalmo believes fully in the importance of nurturing the skill set of players and improving their on-court ability but, like many others, considers the wider implications of development programmes to be equally compelling.  

“These kids live in rural areas, maybe four hours from the capital city, and their social contacts are more the people who work in the fields there, but with tennis they travel, become friends with kids from other areas and countries in the Central American region, and their personal horizons grow,” said Ancalmo. 

“I have a photograph from years ago of children playing tennis and the backs of the courts were chopped wood used for cooking; the balls which weren’t hit were getting stuck in these piles of wood. Those kids have since had new horizons opened to them and it’s such a contrast. 

“A lot of kids from these small areas don’t have much to shoot for, like big goals, so tennis is impacting their lives in a huge way. Also, for the communities they come from, it gives them status and they feel proud that one of their own is succeeding in sport.”

Development initiatives, like those on show in Guatemala, are invaluable as the ITF continues its drive to broaden opportunity, support talent and work towards achieving an ambitious target of 120 million people – another 30 million – playing the sport globally by 2030.  

But as important as raising participation is, retention is equally crucial. A solid coaching structure is one means of achieving both and in Guatemala, the standing and outlook of deliverers has expanded considerably. 

“Initially, they lacked quality coaches, but the young coaches who are now working in these programmes around the country used to be players, so they’ve gone from being players in this programme to coaches,” added Ancalmo. 

“They have been taught the game, become good players and moved into coaching – it is part of the growth. For those who are now coaches, it is a way of life and they aspire to study physical education, for instance, at university so they can be better coaches.  

“We are changing and this is the process of development. If you have better education and better educated coaches who aspire to become even better coaches, they can develop more and better players. It is an evolution.  

“Education changes society, it changes everything and what I see now is better educated tennis coaches working in every community and striving to be better. The driver for that is sport and it is huge.” 

Tennis development within Guatemala would appear to be on an ever-increasing trajectory and, as such, there is huge pride throughout the country at what has been achieved and much anticipation for what the future may hold. Sergio Gonzalez is the Guatemala Tennis Federation’s technical director and perhaps it is fitting that the final word belongs to him.

“For a player to play well, that player needs to have conditions and exploit them,” he told itftennis.com. “For a player to play very well, it is necessary for the universe around them to be fully synchronised, and a player will be the reflection of that universe. Tennis outside the capital city meant we needed to build the universe.”

In the next edition of ITFWorld, which is scheduled for publication in late March/early April, Cecilia Ancalmo will guide readers through each ITF member nation within the Central America region and report on the development/participation picture there.

As the year unfolds, ITFWorld and itftennis.com will circumnavigate the globe and report on what is happening with development and participation throughout all regions. 

To read the ITFWorld article in which development officer Gary Purcell presents an overview of the participation picture in the Pacific Oceania region and indulges in a spot of island hopping, please click here.