IC Council News

August 2025
AGM 2025

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.

Previous Article Meet a member: Jimmy Tasker, IC of Barbados
March 2020

Juan Maria Tintoré

On 5 February 2020, the International Club (IC), the tennis world, and the great sporting city of Barcelona, lost one of its great statesmen.

Juan Maria Tintoré was 92. He wanted to live the longest possible life because Juan Maria, President of the IC of Spain, always had things to do. One of those great projects was the IC’s Potter Cup - an annual event where the world’s best veteran players (men over 45 and women over 40) come to Barcelona for a long weekend to play the best veterans’ tennis on clay anywhere in the world. These players, hundreds of them over a period of nearly 50 years, play in Barcelona’s Potter Cup, not for financial reward, nor because they will win points to improve their rankings, but for the love of a game, played hard but in the spirit of friendship, and immersed in a glorious hospitality that is the trademark of the Potter Cup, of Barcelona, and of Juan Maria himself. The 2020 edition of the Potter Cup is already over-subscribed.

If Juan Maria asked you to do something, you did it. There was nothing he liked better than the democracy of a committee that came to the decision he wanted it to! He fought hard for the survival of something he knew was good: the Potter Cup had the prestige it needed to persuade the two great tennis clubs of Barcelona to host: the men’s event at the Real Cub de Polo de Barcelona, and the newer women’s event at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899, the Club where Juan Maria was President for many years, and where the Potter Cup's gala dinner is held. For Juan Maria, the Potter Cup needed to be run as well as Barcelona’s Trofeo Conde de Godó (the ATP 500 Barcelona Open BancSabadell), where every year a press conference is held by the Tournament, the two great Barcelona Clubs, the Catalan Federation and the IC to announce the Potter Cup and to publicise the IC Philanthropy clinic run during the Potter Cup by Sergi Bruguera's wonderful charity.

Juan Maria knew too that the survival of the International Club, and its values, depended on the willingness of the best Clubs in the world to host the IC’s events. It was important to him that these prestigious Clubs were also aware of the significance of the traditions that bound them together; and Juan Maria guided, hands-on as always, the creation of the Centenary Clubs network. That work began in Barcelona where he built a wonderful bridge between the two great Barcelona clubs that are so important to the Potter Cup.

Juan Maria wasn’t stuck in the past. He was at the forefront of making sure that Spanish tennis had depth. He was a great supporter of the ITF and the players organisations, ATP and WTA.  More tournaments for juniors and seniors in Spain meant more wild cards for Spanish players, he once told me sagely and with a smile: that’s how you created depth in Spanish tennis.

He was also in the vanguard of shaking the old tennis world by taking it to new frontiers, very much in the travelling spirit of the IC: to Sarajevo immediately after the bitter war in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and to Beijing as relations thawed with the capitalist west. He brought news of these projects, places and peoples to the Executive Committee of the IC at its meetings in Paris.

Juan Maria was a man of great personal charm and kindness. He was devoted (as we all are) to his wife, Berti, and to their large family, to whom we send our condolences. At their giant revolving round table in their family home in Mallorca, crowded with their own children and grandchildren, somehow there was always room for guests - and, of course, for their guests' children. Our children stood amazed as Juan Maria, then already in his late eighties, rowed his boat out to into the Balearic Sea every morning with a determination that marked everything he did.

We, especially those who have played in the Potter Cup, are now the guardians of Juan Maria’s legacy. May he Rest in Peace.

Previous Article Ethiopia philanthropic highlights
Next Article Letter from the Chairman about COVID-19