Meet your Regional Representative for Europe: Eva-Maria Schneider, IC of Germany

Former professional tennis player and long-standing member of the IC movement, Eva-Maria Schneider, has spent decades combining her passion for tennis with a commitment to building international friendships through the sport. From competing on the world stage as a junior and professional player to helping connect IC members across Europe, Eva-Maria continues to play an active role in strengthening the global IC community.

Eva-Maria’s tennis journey began at an early age in Germany, where she became a member of the German junior national team. As a junior player, she travelled extensively and competed in tournaments around the world, including all four Grand Slam events. One of her standout moments came at Wimbledon in 1985, when she reached the semifinals of the girls’ doubles alongside Wiltrud Probst, who later went on to become a Top 50 WTA player and remains an active member of the IC of Germany.

After finishing school, Eva-Maria spent two and a half years competing professionally on the WTA Tour, achieving a career-high singles ranking of 234 and reaching around 200 in doubles. Alongside her professional career, she was also a member of the Bundesliga team of Bayer Leverkusen. During her university years, she continued combining academics with tennis while playing for the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Eva-Maria became a member of the IC of Germany around 2006, with one of her earliest experiences being competing for the Dunlop Trophy in Great Britain. She recalls being introduced to the IC through former president Alex Kurucz, whose invitation immediately appealed to her.

“What struck me right away was the unique spirit of the IC,” she explains. “It combines so many of the things I enjoy most about tennis and international friendships.”

For Eva-Maria, being part of the IC offers far more than just competition on court. She particularly values the opportunity to play high-level tennis in special and historic venues around the world, experiences that she says she may otherwise never have had. Equally important are the friendships and connections built through the organisation.

“Meeting up with like-minded people, many of whom I have known for years, is incredibly special,” she says. “And beyond that, it is simply a great honour to be part of such a unique group.”

Among her many memorable IC experiences, one stands above the rest: the celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the IC of Great Britain. Spending a full week at Wimbledon and taking part in the extensive anniversary programme remains one of her favourite memories within the organisation.

Another recent highlight came in March 2025 during the founding session of the IC of Bolivia, where members gathered at the remarkable Club de Tenis La Paz at high altitude. The event further reinforced for Eva-Maria the international and inclusive spirit that makes the IC movement so distinctive.

Today, Eva-Maria serves as Regional Representative for the ICs of Europe, a role she greatly enjoys because it allows her to bring people together from different countries and backgrounds.

“I really enjoy connecting with people and learning about the different programmes and activities across the various ICs,” she says. “Our online meetings are always interesting and inspiring, and I learn something new every time.”

Through her experience as a player, organiser and ambassador for international tennis friendship, Eva-Maria Schneider continues to embody the values at the heart of the IC movement: sportsmanship, connection and a lifelong love of the game.

You can connect with Eva-Maria through Facebook.

Richard Cousins, CEO, Compass Group

Members of the International Lawn Tennis Club all over the world will be sorry to learn of the sudden and tragic death in an air crash, of Richard Cousins, the CEO of Compass Group and his family, over the New Year period. Richard was a great friend to the IC.

He was extremely supportive of the International Club’s Junior Challenge, our world-wide event for 16yr-old tennis players, sponsorship agreements for which he inherited from previous chairmen, Sir Francis McKay and later Sir Roy Gardner.

For the last fourteen years Compass Group has sponsored this event to an ever-increasing extent.

From 2016, Compass increased their support once again and were given the title sponsorship and it has become known all over the world as “The Compass IC Junior Challenge”, with more than 1000 junior international players having participated to date. This has often given juniors their first invaluable taste of international competition.

An under-privileged clinic takes place the day before each Challenge, which is led by the young tennis players taking part, which serves as a salutary lesson to them and the Compass Group were particularly keen on this aspect.

Richard had recently advised that he was retiring in March 2018 and that unfortunately, Compass would no longer be able to sponsor the IC Junior Challenge from 2019 onwards.

Obviously, this was not good news, but we will always be extremely grateful for the tremendous support the IC has received from Richard and the Compass Group up to this year, to enable us to stage this important IC event for aspiring youngsters.

Our thoughts go out to his extended family and his work colleagues who may rest assured that he will be remembered fondly during the Junior Challenge finals in Tokyo later this year.

Julian Tatum

NB The world-wide final of The Compass IC Junior Challenge takes place in Tokyo, Oct 6-12th 2018.