Francesco Ricci Bitti

Francesco Ricci Bitti (born 15 January 1942) is an Italian sports administrator and former tennis player who has presided over the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) since 2013. Since 2015 he has been honorary life president of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Biography Ricci Bitti was born in Faenza, Emilia-Romagna. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Bologna. He has a PhD in Electronic Engineering from Bologna University and an MBA from ISTUD Milan.

He was a member of the Italian National Junior Tennis Team (1960) and won the Italian University Tennis Championships (1962, 1964, 1965).

He served as President of the ITF from 1999 to 2015. He was re-elected President of the ITF for a fourth term (2011–15) at the 2011 ITF Annual General Meeting.

In November 2013, after Tunisia was suspended from the 2014 Davis Cup competition when Tunisian player Malek Jaziri was ordered by the Tunisian Tennis Federation not to compete against Israeli player Amir Weintraub at the 2013 Tashkent Challenger, Bitti said: "There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society."

ASOIF He was a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations Council (2001–09), and is now President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.