Tony Cilia Pisani, President of the Malta Tennis Federation, recently attended the annual general meeting of the International Tennis Federation held in Tunis. His visit was very fruitful since he was able to get into direct contact with the main officials of world tennis and consequently he discussed matters which could bring about an improvement to the local tennis scene.

Some contacts

Paul Smith and Bill Babcock, in charge of the Federation Cup for Ladies’ national teams and the Davis Cup for Men’s teams, were very pleased that Malta had offered to organise the pertinent regional sections of these two prestigious tournaments.

With Dave Miley, CEO, the MTF President discussed plans for the realisation of the ambitious project of setting up a National Tennis Centre. He also confirmed the commitment of financial backing to the project by the ITF.

Play and Stay

The Play and Stay tennis training system for junior players was launched during the annual general meeting. Cilia Pisani agreed with the CEO to launch the system in Malta.

Plans are already in hand to organise its launching this year …a part of the project, so often harped upon by the local president, to go back to grassroots and so to start afresh after having taken full stock of the tennis situation in Malta. By means of this project the tennis system will be introduced to tennis clubs, schools and to the general public with demonstrations in towns and villages in Malta and Gozo.

Nicola Pietrangeli

The famed Italian tennis player, Nicola Pietrangeli was invited to come to Malta later on this year with the purpose of introducing the game to the general public, especially the juniors, by means of the Play and Stay system

Locally organised ITF tournaments for juniors

Malta has recently organised very successful ITF tournaments for juniors in their quest for world ranking points. The inherent problems concerning the organisation of this type of tournament were discussed by Cilia Pisani with Luca Santilli, official in charge of these tournaments. The latter commented that the ITF wishes to reduce the number of these tournaments aiming at quality rather than at quantity.

ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti

The MTF President spoke at length with the man at the helm of the ITF, Francesco Ricci Bitti. One of the main results of the conversation was that Malta will most probably play host to the ITF annual general meeting in 2010 or 2011. If it is held in the latter year it will be election time for the ITF top echelons.