ITF lifts ban on BTF

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has recently withdrawn the suspension on Bangladesh Tennis Federation (BTF) to allow them to hold ITF tournaments, said a federation official yesterday.
In July, the sport's ruling body imposed a fine of 2,500 dollars on BTF and suspended two ITF tournaments after an Israeli player was denied visa for a tournament here in February.
Over the last 24 years BTF has been hosting the ITF Junior Tennis in Dhaka and gradually expanded it to Rajshahi and BKSP. But ITF has suspended the tournaments of Dhaka and Rajshahi and relegated the BKSP event to Grade 4 from Grade 3.
"Considering the voting rights, all countries have been divided into the three categories and Bangladesh has been placed in Category C that means Bangladesh will host two ITF junior tournaments from next year," said BTF general secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Curren yesterday adding that they however had to pay the 2,500 dollars as fine.
He added that they had to make the ITF understand that the federation had nothing to do with the visa issue as Bangladesh had no diplomatic relation with Israel and the ITF finally understood the matter and withdrew the suspension.