COSAT — Confederación Sudamericana de Tenis

What is COSAT?

COSAT, the Confederación Sudamericana de Tenis, is the regional association that groups the national tennis associations of South America. Article 1 of its statutes defines it as an “institución privada sin fines de lucro de ámbito regional” — a private, non-profit institution of regional scope — “afiliada a la Federación Internacional de Tenis”.^[3] Its own About page describes it as “una organización privada, sin fines de lucro, rectora de la actividad de tenis en Sudamérica”, the private non-profit body directing tennis activity in South America.^[2]

The confederation covers tennis in its several forms. Its site carries sections for juniors, professionals, beach tennis, wheelchair tennis, a masters tour (formerly called seniors), university tennis and Special Olympics.^[1] It is not a federation of the professional tours: the men’s and women’s professional circuits are governed by the ATP and the WTA, and the rules of the game, the Davis Cup, the Billie Jean King Cup and the junior and entry-level professional circuits by World Tennis (the ITF).

What does COSAT govern or do?

COSAT does not write the rules of tennis; the Rules of Tennis are World Tennis’s. Its role, as its About page sets it out, is to link its affiliated members with the ITF, to see that tennis rules and regulations are applied, to promote competition among member nations and to coordinate regional development and education programmes.^[2] Those functions mirror Article 5.6 of the ITF Constitution 2026, which requires each regional association to provide a link between its member national associations and the ITF, to promote competition, to establish, sanction and organise calendars of events, and to promote development and educational programmes.^[4]

On the professional side, COSAT publishes the calendars of the ITF men’s and women’s World Tennis Tour events in the region and links to the ATP and WTA rankings; its page states that each player enters those tournaments individually, and describes the regional groupings as “encargadas de velar por el correcto cumplimiento de las directrices generadas desde la ITF en cada una de las asociaciones y/o federaciones nacionales” — charged with seeing that ITF directives are correctly applied in each national association or federation.^[7] It keeps its own COSAT age-group rankings for the 14-and-under and 16-and-under categories.^[6] Anti-doping and anti-corruption in tennis are administered by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which World Tennis lists under its governance pages.^[9]

When was COSAT founded and where is it based?

COSAT’s statutes state that the Confederación Sudamericana de Tenis was “fundada el 20 de Octubre de 1947”; they do not name the place of founding, and no independent source for the date could be retrieved.^[3] Article 2 fixes the acronym COSAT.

The statutes published on COSAT’s site under the title “Estatutos COSAT 2025” record amendments approved at extraordinary congresses in Santiago (2000), Quito (2005), Madrid (2009), Chosica, Peru (2010) and Buenos Aires (2013).^[3] They do not fix a city as the legal seat: the location of the permanent secretariat is proposed by the Directive Committee for the Congress to approve. Its own site gives an email address rather than a postal address.^[2]

On 1 October 2026 COSAT’s site lists its Directive Committee as Rafael Westrupp (Brazil), president; Agustín Calleri (Argentina), vice-president; David Samudio (Colombia), treasurer; and Mario Monroy (Peru), general secretary, with a general manager and a technical manager on the staff.^[2]

How is COSAT recognised?

The recognising act for a tennis regional association is World Tennis’s. Article 5 of the Constitution of the ITF 2026, dated 1 January 2026, governs regional associations: Article 5.1 states: “The Regional Associations affiliated to the ITF as of 1 January 2026 are listed at APPENDIX D”, and Article 5.2 lets the ITF Council approve a new regional affiliation by special majority, provided its region does not overlap an existing one.^[4] Under Article 5.5 a regional association may send up to two delegates to a General Meeting, propose resolutions to the Council, apply for the funds the ITF makes available to regional associations, and receive the ITF’s support for development plans in its region; under Article 9.15.5 its representatives “may speak but may not vote at the meeting”.^[4] The text of Appendix D could not be retrieved, so COSAT’s affiliation rests here on its own statutes, which describe it as affiliated to the ITF.^[3]

COSAT has no IOC recognition of its own; World Tennis is the IOC-recognised body for the sport. Tennis is on the programme of the Lima 2027 Pan American Games (23 July–8 August 2027), as Panam Sports lists them.^[8] Whether Panam Sports lists COSAT among its recognised continental confederations could not be confirmed from a retrieved source.

What does COSAT organise?

COSAT runs no senior (open) continental championship in tennis; its competitions are junior and age-group events.^[6] Its juniors page lists the Circuito Sudamericano de 14-16 Años (the COSAT circuit for the 14-and-under and 16-and-under categories), the Copa COSAT for 14-and-under players, a South American championship (Sudamericano) for the 12-and-under category, and regional legs of the Australian Open Junior Series, and the Roland-Garros Junior Series for 2026. Entries and draws are handled through COSAT’s tournament software, and the page notes that “los torneos solo están confirmados cuando se abren a inscripciones en cosat.tournamentsoftware.com” — tournaments are confirmed only when entries open on that site.^[6]

COSAT also publishes a selection regulation for international tours for 2026–2027, under which it chooses players for its touring teams.^[6] For 18-and-under players the pathway is the ITF’s World Tennis Tour Juniors, whose rankings COSAT links. The region’s men’s and women’s professional events are ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments, which COSAT lists but whose entries go to the ITF.^[7] Its site also carries beach tennis, wheelchair and masters sections.^[1]

Who are its members?

Article 3 of COSAT’s statutes opens membership to the bodies that govern tennis in the countries south of the Panama Canal and are affiliated with their National Olympic Committees; Article 5 makes continued ITF affiliation a condition of remaining a member.^[3] Article 4 lists the current members, and COSAT’s own site names the same ten countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.^[2]

Among them are the Asociación Argentina de Tenis, the Confederação Brasileira de Tênis and the Federación Colombiana de Tenis. Each member is, in its own right, a national association of World Tennis, which states that it works with “214 member national tennis associations and affiliated regional associations”.^[5] Membership of COSAT is therefore a regional layer on top of national membership of World Tennis, not a substitute for it. The countries of Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico belong to COTECC, the neighbouring regional association.