Dubai: Tunisia's Adel Aref became the first Arab and the youngest in the world to gain the prestigious Gold badge for tennis officiating.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has a comprehensive training programme for choosing the best in the sport.
These select band of ITF/Grand Slam officials work as Supervisors, Referees and Chair Umpires at the Grand Slams, the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas, the Fed Cup and the Olympic Games. The current team of professional officials includes Stefan Fransson (ITF Rules & Regulations Officer, Sweden), Mike Morrissey (Administrator of Officiating, Great Britain), Sandra De Jenken (France), Andi Egli (Switzerland), Pascal Maria (France), Wayne McKewen (Australia), Enric Molina (Spain), Javier Moreno-Perez (Spain), Norbert Peick (Germany) and Carlos Ramos (Portugal), who is presently the referee at the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge.
"It is such an honour for me to achieve something at such an early age," Aref told Gulf News.
