AGM 2025

Our AGM took place at the National Tennis Centre, Roehampton, on the middle-Sunday of The Championships at Wimbledon and was attended by 56 delegates, representing 33 out of the 41 ICs invited. 

The agenda covered:

1. The approval of the formation of the new IC of Bolivia (you can read more about this here)
2. The decision to notify two inactive ICs (Bulgaria and Romania) that they will be suspended at the next AGM, unless any rehabilitation to their activity occurs before then
3. A generally healthy financial position, albeit reserves could be stronger and more introductions to potential donors are needed
4. A strong level of events activity, with a significant number of upcoming anniversary celebrations (find out more about these here)
5. A strong improvement to our communications, with all ICs sharing the eNews with their members and our IC Council Instagram account reaching over 1,000 followers
6. The results of this year’s Business Returns survey, which you can read in more detail in the Members’ section of the website here
7. An update from the IC Philanthropy Foundation, who are now supporting 17 programmes in 15 countries and have recently introduced a new Global Cultural Exchange Programme (you can read more about ICPF’s work here)
8. The success of the inaugural wheelchair tennis event at the 2024 IC Week and an ask to more ICs to include wheelchair members and players.

The AGM was preceded by a workshop on Saturday 5 July, which focused heavily on the theme of driving greater engagement with younger former players. We ask all ICs to discuss this objective more with their Regional Reps and Boards – including the nomination of potential mentors from your IC for current or former professionals.

For further information and the documents from the AGM, please log in to the Members’ section of the IC Council website. Each IC’s President and Honorary Secretary has these details and can share any information or answer any questions you may have.

ITF AGM Report

Paul McNamee, IC of Australia and Executive Committee member attended the recent ITF AGM meeting, as an observer on behalf of the IC. The main agenda matters were in relation to the Presidential and Board elections, and Paul had the following to report:

"I had a productive discussion with the chair of the ITF’s Rules of Tennis Committee, amongst others. I explained to the chair the history of the IC’s role as (previously) an observer on this committee, especially in its role as custodian of the spirit of the game.

We touched on issues such as consistency of time between points on the ATP and WTA Tours and at ITF events, scoring of matches (e.g. all Grand Slams are different in the 5th set), grunting and, importantly, investigations into the merits of in match coaching. Most encouragingly, the chair supported the concept of the IC’s observer role being reinstated. However, it would require significant broader support I imagine before the observer role could be reinstated.

One rule change which went to the floor of the AGM was in relation to rule 29 of the rules of Tennis to extend the time between points from 20 to 25 seconds. The remaining parts of the rule would remain intact, including the principle that play should be continuous.

The reasons given were:

(1) harmony across all bodies - ATP, WTA and ITF, given ATP & WTA operate on 25 seconds

(2) physiological, in that the demands of the modern game justify it

(3) data shows that it will only have a minimal increase on the length of matches

The motion was carried by a 92% majority.

Given the IC is an observer at the AGM, we are not in a position to comment on a proposed resolution on the floor, which makes it important that the IC may one day again have a presence at the Rules of Tennis Committee.

I do appreciate the support which was given to me by the IC Council to attend."