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International Association of Journalist Tennis Players
by Adalberto Minazzi
The story of the International Association of Journalist Tennis-Players (AITJ) starts in 1977 in Venice. During the championships of AGIT (Italian Association of Tennis Journalists), AGIT’s President Elio Marsano had an idea: why not found an international association and organize a world tennis tournament for journalists? A year later Marsano’s idea became reality. With the support of Enrico Crespi, President of the International Association of Sports Journalists, Gianni Da Col, owner of the Lido Tennis Club, and the enthusiasm of two part time journalists, Aurelio Minazzi and Massimo Catenacci, Venice held the first international tennis tournament for journalists in 1978. About 60 journalists from six nations took part.
One year later, in the Sicilian town of Kamarina, the AITJ was officially founded. Marsano was named President and the statute made it clear that only full time journalists could take part in the championships. Since then the AITJ World Championships have been held annually for journalists who play tennis. In 30 years they have been held in 13 countries – in Europe and once in Canada – and the number of players has grown to 150 from over 25 Nations. There have been four Presidents: Elio Marsano (Italy), Leo Lohberger (Austria), Silvano Tauceri (Italy) and Bojan Budja (Slovenia), who was appointed in 2007.
Tennis brings West and East together
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… forward
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