On 18th June 2020, The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced, 25 years old Niki Kalyanda Poonacha, National Champion of India as a member of the ITF World Tennis Tour Men’s Panel representing the Asia-Oceania zone with Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Men’s Tennis Panel:
i.In addition to Niki and Ti Chen, the members of the Men’s tennis panel include Juan Pablo Paz & Jose Bendeck representing South America, Aldin Sektic & Francesco Vilardo representing Europe.
ii.The panel has an option to appoint additional members if they fulfill the regional and ranking requirements.
Women’s Tennis Panel:
The Women’s panel includes, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Olivia Tjandramulia of Australia representing Asia-Oceania, Ines Ibbou of Algeria representing Africa, Petra Januskova of Canada representing North and Central America – Caribbean,Yuliana Lizarazo of Colombia representing South America and Tara Moore of Great Britain and Conny Perrin of Switzerland representing Europe.
ITF World Tennis Tour Players Panel:
i.The Men’s and Women’s Panel will be headed by Mark Woodforde and Mary Pierce respectively who are the athlete representatives on the ITF board of directors.
ii.The chair and the coaches are the non-voting members of the panel and the players voting is required on each tour panel to recommend the ITF World Tennis Tour Committee.
iii.As a part of the ITF2024 strategy, the federation is planning to improve the communication between the federation and athletes all over the world.
Niki Poonacha:
i.Niki was born in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu currently residing in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh
ii.Niki Poonacha won the ITF title against Michael Look of Australia in the Indonesia F3 Futures tournament in the singles category in 2018.
iii.He won doubles titles in the 2019 M15 Kampala, 2015 India F19 Futures & Spain F23 Futures and 2014 India F8 Futures.
iv.He won the Fenesta National Tennis Championship in New Delhi in October 2019.
About ITF:
President/CEO– David Haggerty
Chief Operating Officer(COO)– Kelly Fairweather
Headquarters– London, United Kingdom