OCEANIA TENNIS FEDERATION ANNUAL REPORT 2018 2018 Pacific Oceania Fed Cup Winning Team Promoted to Asia/Oceania Group I L to R- Carol Lee (NMI), Steffi Carruthers (SAM), Abigail Tere-Apisah0 (PNG), Gilles de Gouy (TAH)-captain TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents President’s Report ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Executive Officer’s Report __________________________________________________________________________ 3-7 Financial Statements _______________________________________________________________________________ 8-11 Notes to Financial Statements ______________________________________________________________________ 12 Senior Tennis ______________________________________________________________________________________ 13-20 Junior Tennis ______________________________________________________________________________________ 21-33 Tournament and Team Statistics________________________________________________________________34-38 OFFICERS PRESIDENT: Mr. Cyrille Mainguy (VAN) VICE PRESIDENT: Mr. Bruce Osborne (AUS) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Ms. Celia Patrick (NZL), Ms. Ernestine Rengiil(PAL), Mr. Torgun Smith (GUM), Mr. Wilfred Sacault (PYF), Mrs. Barbara Stubbings (PNG) AUDITOR: Mr. Barry McMillan EXECUTIVE OFFICERS : Mr. David Smith, Mr. Richard Breen PROJECT ADMINISTRATIONS OFFICER : Mr. Richard Breen DEVELOPMENT: Mr. Gary Purcell –ITF Development Officer-Pacific Oceania MEMBER NATIONS: American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Is, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2018 It is with much pleasure that I present the Annual Report of the Oceania Tennis Federation ( OTF ) for the 2018 year. It has been an interesting and great year for me and the OTF with a lot exciting events happening. The ITF had approved funding for the OTF to organize the first Nations’ Cup and this event was organized in Lautoka, Fiji in June ’18 and it was a great success with players from the 15 Member Nations invited to attend. Originally this event was supposed to be hosted biannually and the ITF has now confirmed that the Nations’ Cup will be hosted again in 2019. During the ITF AGM in Orlando in August, I presented on behalf of the OTF the Nation’s Cup Competition to the other Class C Nations of the world and hopefully this event will also happen in other regions of the world where Class C members are in numbers. It was also a fruitful but very political AGM in Orlando. It was great to be able to present and meet with the ITF Board and request for more funding and to give the Board an overview of what is required to assist Tennis in our Region and Nations. The ITF has responded with an increase in funding. This year OTF manage all the projects and we are working closely with the ITF to improve this. A special mention to Richard Breen, the OTF Projects Administration Officer, as these are time consuming and difficult at times with some Nations not communicating timely with the Officers. Our athletes also continue to improve with wonderful results with special mention to Abigail Tere-Apisah whose professional results has been outstanding breaking the top 300 ranking. This was also done with a special grant from the ITF to Abigail for 2018 and the money was well invested! Also a special mention to Colin Sinclair who has reached 495 at the end of 2018. Likewise, our Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams including our Junior Teams represented Pacific Oceania with distinction and we look forward to following our combined teams this year. Much of the great work in our region has been carried out by Gary Purcell. Gary’s knowledge, commitment and passion to Tennis in Oceania have greatly assisted us to create programs which lift the standard of all Nations. Gary has also conducted Play Tennis courses in a couple of nations improving the level of our coaches. Gary continues to work closely with OTF to improve the level of tennis in our Region. We are also extraordinarily well served by our Joint Executive Officers, David Smith and Richard Breen who between them make Oceania function and work efficiently despite our limited budget. The ITF has last year offered a one-off governance funding package and with the partnership of OSEP, the OTF organized the course during the AGM in Auckland. The Governance workshop was outstanding and it was a bit disappointing that some of the nations could not attend. I want to thank Tennis Australia for their extraordinary financial and logistical support of the OTF which is exceptionally administered by Bruce Osborne who does so much for tennis in the Pacific Oceania region. This assistance supports our objectives of building the grass roots and participation in Pacific Oceania which will give us a firm base to grow the sport for the future. In my view, this is the best use of our limited resources. 1 I also want to thank the ITF for the increase in funding levels all of which play a part in assisting us to ‘grow the game’ and extend our Projects. Nauru Tennis has rejoined the Oceania Tennis Family and unfortunately Tonga was suspended at the ITF AGM due to their not meeting their membership obligations. Finally my thanks to all of the officers of our Nations whose love for and commitment to tennis keeps the game going and growing. You make the OTF the very special organization it is. Cyrille Mainguy President Oceania Tennis Federation 2 Executive Officer’s Report Overview 2018 has been a year of many “firsts,” detailed in this report, for tennis in Pacific Oceania. There was huge celebration in Isa Town, Bahrain earlier this year when the Pacific Oceania Team of Abigail Tere-Apisah (PNG), Steffi Carruthers (SAM), Carol Lee (NMI) and captain Gilles de Gouy (PYF)-pictured on the front cover of this report- were promoted to Group I in Fed Cup, the first time they will play in Group I for 18 years. This will be the 3 rd time that Pacific Oceania will compete in Group I having previously done so in 1999 and 2001. Pacific Oceania is now ranked #45 in the World and will journey to Kazakhstan in February 2019. 2018 was also the first time in Pacific Oceania tennis history that a Pacific Oceania player made the final of a Grand Slam Event. At the Australian Open in January 2018, Violet Apisah (PNG) became the first Papua New Guinea tennis player to reach a Grand Slam final when she played with her partner, Lulu Sun of Switzerland in the Junior Doubles Final 3 Then on the 19 th November 2018, Colin Sinclair, following a stellar run when he reached the final of 5 consecutive Futures Finals became the first tennis to break into the World’s top 500 ranked players whwhenen he reached a career high ranking of #494, almost 800 places higher than h is 2017 year ending ranking Earlier this year, Brett Baudinet’s name was added to the ITF Honours Board in London. As part ooff the ITF’s centenary year in 2013, the ITF launched the Davis Cup Commitment Award to reward tthhoseose Davis Cup players who have sho wn long standing dedication to representing their ccouountry.ntry. Brett Baudinet from the Cook Islands is one such player as during the Davis CupCup Tie in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last year Brett BauBaudinBaudinetdinetet became the first ever player to play 50 Davis Cup TiTieess for Pacifi c Oceania. (He has now played 54.) This is an extraordinary and rare achievement; additionally the Davis Cup Commitment Award Crest was put on his player profile on the Davis Cup website. His name now proudly is etched between Robin Haase (N(NED)ED) and Joao So usa (POR) on the ITF Honours Board. 4 During the OTF AGM in Auckland in March he was presented with this award by Frank Couraud, the Manager, Training Centres & Events for the International Tennis Federation Brett first started playing Davis Cup in 2000 and holds the following Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Records: • Most Years Played 15 • Most Total Wins W34/L26 • Most Doubles Wins W33/L15 Then in June 2018, Pacific Oceania created ITF history in being the first tennis region of the World to host the inaugural Nations Cup-Pacific, hosted by Tennis Fiji, which was held at the Regional Training Centre in Lautoka, Fiji. The top 64 players from 15 member Nations of Pacific Oceania competed in this Event which was a pilot by the ITF for the World and it gave these players from Class C Nations the opportunity to play in a "Davis Cup/Fed Cup" type event for their country; an opportunity they only currently have under the Pacific Oceania Team umbrella. This was an outstanding success and was primarily funded by the ITF as part of the 2018 Pacific Assistance Budget. The inaugural winners and runners up were: • Men: Tahiti (Winners) and Vanuatu (Runners Up) • Women: Northern Marianas Is (Winners) and Samoa (Runners Up) 5 Executive and AGM The OTF held its 17th AGM in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday 25 th March. There were 20 attendees from OTF Member Nations including Frank Couraud, the ITF Manager, Training Centres & Events; Gary Purcell, the ITF Development Officer-Pacific Oceania and Andrew Minogue, Executive Director-Pacific Games Council During the AGM, Brett Baudinet was presented with the ITF Davis Cup commitment Award by Frank Couraud. This AGM was preceded the day before when the OTF Executive met on Saturday 24 th March 2018. The OTF continues to be administered by two Joint Executive Officers with the respective primary responsibilities of each being: • David Smith Plans and Policies; Finance; Sponsorship Submissions; Touring Teams/Events; Governance Management; Communication • Richard Breen Development Programme; ITF Junior Pacific Circuit; Regional Tennis Centre; Regional Training Centre Additionally Richard Breen manages all the Pacific Oceania Joint ITF/OTF projects on behalf of the ITF. 2018 is the first full year that this has occurred.