Israel Tennis Centers

Israel Tennis Centers
Formation	1976
Type	Sports – Tennis, Children's Charity
Headquarters	Ramat HaSharon, Israel
Location	Israel

Israel Tennis Centers ("ITC"; Hebrew: המרכז לטניס בישראל) is the largest tennis program for children in the world, reaching more than 350,000 families—5% of the Israeli population. With 14 centers around the country, primarily in underprivileged communities, the not-for-profit Centers use tennis to promote the social, physical, and psychological well being of their students (through other programs such as their Life Skills program). Another of its goals is the development of coaches (such as Oded Yaakov), and building and maintaining courts and facilities at the highest levels.

The ITC is the physical home of the Israel Children's Centers, Israel's largest social service agency for children. The Israel Children's Centers serve 10,000 children every week through a variety of programs that address development and social needs, including coexistence programs for Arab and Jewish children and customized programs for a variety of disabilities.

The ITC has to date produced the following top-30 players: Andy Ram (career-high doubles ranking of # 5); Yoni Erlich (doubles ranking of # 5); Shahar Pe'er (doubles ranking of # 14 and singles ranking of # 11); Anna Smashnova (singles ranking of # 15); Amos Mansdorf (singles ranking of # 18); Shlomo Glickstein (singles ranking of #22 in 1982; # 28 in doubles); Dudi Sela (singles ranking of #30 in 2009), and Harel Levy (singles ranking of # 30 in 2001).

History

Early years

In 1974, at a time when tennis in Israel was a sport played primarily by tourists as beach hotels, Dr. Ian Froman, Freddie Krivine, Joseph D. Shane, Harold Landesberg, Rubin Josephs, and Dr. William H. Lippy began fundraising efforts to launch tennis as a sport in Israel and to build a National Tennis Center on an old strawberry patch in Ramat HaSharon given to the ITC by the government. On April 25, 1976, Leah Rabin cut the ribbon to the Center, and 250 children signed up to participate. Canadian pioneers of the Centers included Joseph Frieberg, Gerry Goldberg, Ralph Halbert, and Harold Green. Their fundraising efforts laid the financial foundation for Canada Stadium, where the Davis Cup and Fed Cup were hosted in Israel until 2009, and the construction and maintenance of the centers, as well as provision of equipment to the children, were funded without any government assistance.

Canada Stadium; 2008

2008 By 2008, about 350,000 Jewish, Christian, and Moslem Israeli children had gone through the seven complexes funded by the ITC, and 1951 Wimbledon champion Dick Savitt was overseeing the coaching techniques. Anna Smashnova moved to Israel with her family in 1990, aged 15, and trained at the ITC; the next year she won the French Open girls title, and in 2002 she reached a career-high ranking of # 15. In 1991 the ATP donated $5,000 to the ITC, and Argentine tennis player Martín Jaite, who is Jewish, donated $3,000. In 1995, Israeli former Davis Cup player and national champion Gilad Bloom, who was world champion in the under-12 age group, became senior coach role with the ITC.

Thirty years after the centers were begun, in 2006 the first ITC product won a Wimbledon title, as Andy Ram won the 2006 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. He had learned his tennis at the ITC's Jerusalem Tennis Center, and Yoni Erlich, his men's doubles partner, had learned his tennis at the Haifa Tennis Center. "I can only find words of esteem for the Israel Tennis Center for their support and help", Ram said after his success.

In 2007, Issy Kramer, Honorary President of the Israel Water Polo Association (IWPA), indicated that he would like to replicate what the ITC has achieved, by building centers throughout Israel, particularly in poorer neighborhoods and development towns. "Swimming, like tennis, should not have to be an elitist sport", he said.

Relationship with the Israel Tennis Association

The ITC has a history of a stormy relationship with the Israel Tennis Association ("ITA"), the national governing body for tennis in Israel. Kollie Friedstein, also the executive director of the ITC at the time and one of the founders of Kibbutz Shoval in the Negev, become chairman of the ITA in 1988 for a 2-year period, at which time "a state of turbulence" existed between the ITA and the ITC. Appointed to head both bodies at the same time, Friedstein felt that by 1990 he had succeeded in bringing "industrial peace" between them. While the Israeli national tennis team had historically been linked, financially and otherwise, with the ITC, in 1996 the ITA took over its entire administration, and moved its practice center from Ramat Hasharon to a Hadar Yosef sports complex in Tel Aviv. By 2008, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz was bringing the ITA and the ITC to task for squabbling with each other to the detriment of the development of Israeli tennis, and called for a big tennis tournament and a lower-level competition to be hosted by Israel. Janine Strauss, CEO of the ITC shares that view: "Anyone who understands anything about tennis knows that training is not enough – tournaments are essential."Berger And The Jerusalem Post reported in 2008, "While the facilities at Israel's tennis centers are more than adequate, most people involved in tennis here still agree on the reason for the lack of prospects. Both Okun and Sela blamed the lack of quality ranking tournaments in Israel.... The Israeli Tennis Association does not put enough money into running tournaments at home to give Israelis the chance to play and win ranking points.... But unless the ITA rethinks its strategy, Sela and Pe'er could be the last in the current generation of Israeli tennis stars and Israel will once again sink into the lower ranks of tennis also-rans."

In 2009 a dispute developed over where to play the Davis Cup tie against Russia, with the players and the ITC squaring off against the ITA, and the matter ending up in court. Over the protests of all four of their own players (including Harel Levy, who said: ""Only Ramat Hasharon. We're not even thinking about Nokia. There's no reason to play against the Russians indoors – we love Ramat Hasharon"), who preferred to play outdoors in the heat on the hard court that they are accustomed to, the ITA moved the tie against Russia in 2009 from Ramat Hasharon to the larger indoor Nokia Stadium. But the ITA was sensitive to the fact that the indoor arena had a capacity of 11,000 – more than double that of the Canada Stadium. ITA CEO Moshe Haviv denied that his prime consideration was the extra money such a move would bring in, and said the larger stadium would give more Israelis the chance to see the national team play, and allow them to watch the sport in more comfortable conditions. The Israel Tennis Center (ITC) turning to the Tel Aviv District Court in an effort to prevent the ITA from playing the matches at the Nokia Stadium rather than the Canada Stadium in Ramat Hasharon, claiming that the previous ITA chairman, Assaf Hefetz, had given the ITA a written guarantee that future Davis Cup and Fed Cup ties would be played at Ramat Hasharon after the ITC renovated the venue in 2008. The court ruled in favor of the ITA, however, after the sides failed to reach a compromise as Judge Yehuda Fargo had suggested. "The stadium at Ramat Hasharon doesn't fit the requirements for such a world class event, and therefore it is better off to play at Nokia", said Fargo. "I think this is the wrong decision", ITC CEO Janine Strauss said. "It was important for the players to play at Ramat Hasharon."

Mission statement

•Giving every child in Israel – regardless of background, religion or physical ability – the opportunity to learn the game of life through tennis.

•Providing a variety of community development and outreach programs.

•Promoting and developing world class Israeli tennis players.

Philosophy

The Pursuit of Excellence on every level.

Notable alumni

Shahar Pe'er

• Shahar Pe'er (career-high singles ranking of #11 in 2011; # 14 in doubles)
• Anna Smashnova (career-high singles ranking of #15 in 2003)
• Amos Mansdorf (career-high singles ranking of #18 in 1987; # 67 in doubles)
• Shlomo Glickstein (career-high singles ranking of #22 in 1982; # 28 in doubles)
• Dudi Sela (career-high singles ranking of #29 in 2009)
• Harel Levy (career-high singles ranking of #30 in 2001)
• Shahar Perkiss (career-high singles ranking of #53 in 1985)
• Gilad Bloom (career-high singles ranking of #61 in 1990; # 62 in doubles)
• Tzipora Obziler (career-high singles ranking of #75 in 2007)
• Noam Okun (career-high singles ranking of #95 in 2002)
• Noam Behr (career-high singles ranking of #127 in 2001, # 109 in doubles)
• Eyal Ran (career-high singles ranking of #138 in 1997, # 71 in doubles)
• Hila Rosen (career-high singles ranking of #138 in 1999)
• Ilana Berger (career-high singles ranking of #149 in 1992)
• Oren Motevassel (career-high singles ranking of #161 in 1997)
• Yevgenia Savransky (career-high singles ranking of #172 2006)
• Amir Hadad (career-high singles ranking of #180 in 2003, # 87 in doubles)
• Andy Ram (career-high singles ranking of #187 in 2002, # 5 in doubles)
• Yoni Erlich (career-high singles ranking of #292, # 5 in doubles)

External links

• [10], ITC Site, English
• Israel Children's Centers, American fundraising arm of ITC
• Israel Children's Centres, Canadian fundraising arm of ITC
• The Decade of an Impossible Dream: The story of the Israel Tennis Centers by Albert A Hutler, Leanore E Hutler, ITC, 1987, ASIN: B0007C1GAO
• Berger, Ilana, "Game, set and match," The Jerusalem Post