International Tennis Fellowship of Rotarians
Rotary Ace Score an ace with Rotary… for a winning service ! Edited by Valentina Dell’Acqua
Thursday, September 30 2010
Newsletter no. 35
6 th ITFR WTC for Polio Plus Pugnochiuso - Italy, August 21st - 28th 2010
ITFR Fact sheet ITFR currently has 970 members from 61 countries and all continents; ITFR can join Rotarians, Rotaractors and their spouses who love tennis and fellowship; NO membership fee; "Everything" is online - Registration, Members' database, Calendar, Voting, Financial reports, Constitution, Board, Newsletters, News, mailing lists etc.
ITFR upcoming tournaments February 26-27 2011 ITFR SAMVS Winter Cup, Cluj – Napoca ROMANIA January 22-24 2011 RCMIC President’s Cup Chennai, INDIA August 27— September 3 2011 7th ITFR World Tennis Championship CROATIA 2011, Bol (island of Brac— Dalmatia)
At the end of our World Championship Tennis I am here again, just like the last years, writing about my impressions and feelings with the fear of saying again what I have already told in the past, but with the same state of mind and the same passion for this Rotarian tennis meeting, which isn’t competitive, but open to all who share their passion for tennis both veterans and beginners.
merits of our Fellowship. The nice gesture is an appropriate recognition to the work made so far, particularly to the capacities of Past Chairman Tomislav Maravic (Zagreb Centar RC) and Chairman Marco Marinaro (Salerno R.C.), who went up to such remarkable results.
The charm of this annual meeting urges every year new Rotarians and their wives to take a tennis racket even if for the first time! The Championship was held to contribute to the Rotary Polio Plus project End Polio Now, according to the decisions of the Board ITFR (Barcelona 2008 and Vienna 2009). I think it is important to point out that the President of the Italian Republic sending the bronze medal to Chairman Marco Marinaro has recognized the
ers because the friendship really consolidated has turned into affection, the pleasure of being together, meeting again the same people and finding the same situations by now family, has been the real spring that urges us to organize our holidays or part of them in relation of this annual meeting. The spirit of the tournament is since from the beginning a meeting of Rotarian friends, but at the end of the week, when we greet each other we feel really overwhelmed with the regret of not meeting again every moment of the day to comment on this or that fifteen lost or found, that lost game for a pittance or even gestures and expressions of different humanity.
Bronze medal of the Italian Republic’s President awarded to ITFR
The tournament became, for many tennis Rotarian players, an essential annual meeting; I deliberately declare that Rotarian tennis players and not tennis Rotarian play-
Marco Marinaro, ITFR Chairman, and Giancarlo Ciuffreda, WTC Director
Giancarlo and Marcia Ciuffreda (RC Foggia Capitanata) had to really
6 th ITFR WTC for Polio Plus -Pugnochiuso - Italy, August 21st - 28th 2010 (continues from page 1) do somersaults to organize the Championship in such a short time and this element, if possible, gives them more and more merits so the thanks for the perfect programming becomes even more heartfelt. Giancarlo, has been both an excellent tennis player, and a brilliant host, assisted by his excellent staff, in particular a special thanks to Roberto Mattia (RC Foggia Capitanata), appreciated by all the participants for his competence, availability and relaxing power.
The choice of the location was really good, inside the Gargano National Park, which would, perhaps, be better called natural paradise for the beauty of the place and the charm of nature. Inside the Resort there were facilities and adequate services, excellent and well maintained tennis courts, complemented by the availability of the instructors Fabrizio and Duilio and the assistant Vito of the Sunball Tennis. The tournament has been held, as mentioned, in a fantastic atmosphere of friendship, but not devoid of the more healthy competitive spirit, and always inclined to settle nicely, sometimes ironically, the inevitable problems that arise in such circumstances where over one hundred people from ten countries attended. The following countries were represented, apart from Italy: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, England, Pakistan, Romania, Spain. Among all the Rotarian tennis players Sebastiano (Ninni) Monaco (RC Siracusa, Italy), stood out inside and outside the courts for his sympathy and humanity. Indeed, with general approval - as
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you can see in the picture on the left where he is between Marco Marinaro and Giancarlo Ciuffreda - Sebastiano has been awarded the prize for "Fair Play & Fellowship”.
Marco Marinaro and the district 2120’s governor Marco Torsello
The original boards were expanded during the tournament with the appropriate introduction of new billboards, in order to allow all players to play and have fun as much as possible: the goal has been fully accomplished reached plenty in fact at the end someone threatened to file his He addressed words of heartfelt satrackets in the vaults of his bank to isfaction the Rotarian sport initiative. withdraw it next year! On Friday at the Finals there was also Mr. Sergio Sernia, Assistant of the Governor of the District 2120. Once again thanks to the ability of the organizers and the wise general direction of our (we hope!) everlasting Chairman Marco Marinaro, we can close this experience very satisfied, especially as Rotarians, because the collected budgets for Polio Plus, the main goal of our meeting has been definitely worth of commitThe White & Wood (wooden rackets ment of all. A special thanks, as aland clothing strictly white) has been ways, to the Sponsors. really appreciated as well as the mini tournament held in double yellow for Now our wait is for the next champithe players’ children: Edoardo and onship which will be held in Croatia island of Brac Ettore Ciuffreda, Alessandro Mari- in Bol on the beautiful th (from August 27 , 2011) and we hope naro, Maria Lucia Tommolini. it will be more and more attended Giancarlo and Duilio led the tourna- and always a reason of meeting both ment in just three hours, with great Rotarian friends and tennis players. enjoyment and satisfaction of all. In the meantime, don’t lose sight of After an intense week of tennis, the the tournament schedule ITFR for the results have been summarized with next few months: who wishes to plan the publication of the winners, refer- and enjoy a vacation (even just a ring to our official website ITFR for a w e e k e n d ) i n f r i e n d s h i p ? more detailed examination of the Giacomo Oppia boards (www.itfr.org). The gala evening was given in the R.C. Cagliari North – District 2080 presence of civilian and Rotarian authorities, in particular the Gover- ITFR T.D. Italy nor of District 2120 Marco Torsello, with his wife Mrs. Lucia.
Group picture at the award ceremony
Rotary Friendship, tennis and solidarity The beautiful bay of Pugnochiuso Vieste (Foggia) in the heart of Gargano National Park was the scenario from 21 to 28 August 2010 of 6th ITFR World Tennis Championship. ITFR Association, International Tennis Fellowship of Rotarians, was founded in 2004 with the aim of bringing together Rotarians from all over the world with common interest for tennis, promoting friendship and solidarity. Needless to say, this becomes a means to serve humanity through the tennis and promote peace and cultural exchange at international level, with the possibility of supporting social and humanitarian projects of Rotary. The 6th championship, organized for the second time in Italy after the previous experience of Salerno 2007, was truly an international event with a total of over one hundred participants from 10 countries, with Bulgaria and Pakistan at the first participation to a ITFR world championship. Despite the many entertainments related to the wonderful natural attractions of the place with excursions by land and sea in the most beautiful towns of Gargano like Vieste, Peschici, Mattinata and Monte Sant'Angelo and the perfect tourist organization of the resort, the team has spent entire days of fun and pas-
sion for sport at the 5 tennis courts at disposal of Rotarians, under the careful and meticulous leadership of ITFR President Marco Marinaro (RC Salerno) and the Tournament Director Giancarlo Ciuffreda (RC Foggia Capitanata), without forgetting promotion and support of Rotary's Polio Plus program which is for ITFR the main objective of its action until June 30, 2012. The award ceremony, held on one of the wonderful terraces of the Hotel del Faro, with a breathtaking night view on the beaches of Pugnochiuso and Portopiatto, involved rotarian authority as Rotary District 2120 Governor Marco Torsello, Governor Assistant Sergio Sernia and President of the Rotary Club Foggia Capitanata Christian Curatolo and civil authorities as the Councillor for Sports of the Municipality of Vieste Giuseppina Falcone and Vice President of Foggia CONI Nico Palatella with final delivery of prizes for the categories Men's Singles under and over 55, Women's Singles, Men's and Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles and the White & Wood, the special tournament held in the evening with players with wooden rackets and dressing white suits. A special prize was awarded to Sebastian Monaco, Rotary District 2110 (RC Siracusa), particularly distin-
guished for the promotion of values such as fair play and fellowship. During his speech, Marco Marinaro considered the meaning of the word "fellowship" in wider value of Rotary friendship, going beyond the principle of "Service Above Self", but also considering the sharing of interests as a tool to support the ideals of friendship and tolerance among peoples and the support and implementation of important social and humanitarian projects. By the way, Tennis is a sport that matches perfectly with the values of Rotary: Being together and sharing Rotary by tennis is the mission of this fellowship, which gives appointment to all Rotarian tennis fans, as well to the next tournaments in Italy and worldwide, for the next World Championship to be held in Bol (Brac) in Croatia in the month of August 27, 2011 (for info: www.itfr.org; email: chairman@itfr.org ). Roberto Mattia R.C. Foggia Capitanata District 2120
6th ITFR World Tennis Championship Results
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6th ITFR World Tennis Championship PHOTO ALBUM The pictures on this page are finalists’ (the only available now). All the participants are kindly asked to provide us more finals’ pictures for the next issue. Paola Pisacane vs Maie Tomikas
Erhard Schmid & Heinz Lichtenegger vs Marcel Crisan & Adrian Luca
Atanas Atanasov & Juraj Dragicevic vs Andrea Gentili & Sebastiano Monaco
Andrei Luca vs Giuseppe Giordano Neubuser & Tiina Must vs Marion Mas & Paola Pisacane
Andrea Gentili vs Claudio Dorigotti Giuseppe Giordano & Martina Ghezzi vs Tsvetelina Gochkova & Tomislav Maravic
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NEWS FROM THE ITFR BOARD Dear friends, I am pleased to inform you that the Board has approved the appointment of new TDs,: Giancarlo Ciuffreda (TD Europe / Board member) Krishnaswami Ramakrishnan (he is already TD Asia, but now Asia has 100 members and so accordino to our Constitution he becomes Board member) Sajid Pervaiz (TD Pakistan) I congratulate these friends. I am sure that with the support of all of you we can continue to grow our wonderful Rotarian friendship/fellowship! I thank you our friend Giuseppe Iannuzzi, TD Europe 2008/2010, for his Rotarian service.
In the picture below from the left: Marco Marinaro, Sajid Pervaiz, Roberto Mattia and Giancarlo Ciuffreda
YiRS Marco Marinaro ITFR Chairman
Dear ITFR friends, as you probably know, we had a great week in Pugnochiuso during our 6th ITFR World Championship !! But, beside the pleasure and good tennis, we had our General Annual Meeting, Board meeting and CTD (Country Tour Directors) meeting.
ment Directors: Giancarlo Ciuffreda, Italy - Regional TD Europe and Krishnaswami Ramakrishnan, India - Regional TD Asia. Both of them have organized perfect Tournaments and have more then 100 ITFR members in their Regions - so, according to our Constitution, they are automatically the ITFR Board Members.
Detailed report will be sent to you soon, but I just want to share with you some news regarding future ITFR World Looking forward to see you soon. Championships, ITFR booths at RI Conventions and new YIR Regional TDs. Tomislav Maravic, PHF, PAG Croatia ITFR World Championships ITFR World Tour Director The approval of any future ITFR World Championship should be done more then one year in advance - so it can be presented at the Annual General Meeting during ITFR Past Chairman the previous ITFR World Championship. The organizers of the next ITFR World Championship must organize and be present at the ITFR booth during On the left: the next RI Convention. One member of the ITFR Board should be nominated to General help and supervise related activities Assembly So this year we have decided that the 7th ITFR World Attendees Championship will be organized in Bol (http:// www.bol.hr/en), Island of Brac, Croatia, 27 Aug 2011. - 03 Sep 2011. Our friends from Brac will be in charge of ITFR booth during RI Convention in New Orleans (21-25 May 2011). Below: Mladen Novakovic, ITFR Vice Chairman, is nominated Board meeting by the Board to help and supervise the event. Please send your proposals for the ITFR World Championship in 2012 - the selected one will be presented during ITFR General Annual Meeting (next year in Bol). RI Convention in New Orleans We have agreed to organize the one day ITFR Tournament before the Convention - on Saturday, 21 May 2011. Eugene McNease (our TD for Americas) was not in Pugnochiuso, so we all agreed that he is in charge :)) New Regional TDs & Board Members I also want to congratulate our new Regional Tourna-
7 th ITFR World Tennis Championship — Croatia 2011 Bol (island of Brac — Dalmatia), August 27/September 3 2011
For more information visit: www.bol.hr ITFR operates in accordance with Rotary International policy, but is not an agency of, or controlled by, Rotary International.