Draw delivers early intrigue at World Beach Games
The draw for the inaugural ANOC World Beach Games has thrown up a mouth-watering first-round match-up as world No.1 Nikita Burmakin and partner Sergey Kuptsov take on No.2 seeds Luca Cramarossa and Tommaso Giovannini in Doha.
A total of 68 athletes representing 15 nations will take part in the five-day beach tennis event at the World Beach Games in Qatar, with the 21-team-strong mixed doubles draw launching the action on Katara Beach on Saturday October 12, prior to the Games’ Opening Ceremony that evening.
The men’s and women’s doubles events get under way on Sunday October 13, with the second-seeded Italians’ clash with the Russians – crowned European champions in Bulgaria earlier this year – the pick of a heady set of opening matches.
With partnerships dictated by nationality and just four seeds in the 16-team men’s draw, world No.1 Burmakin and No.24 Kuptsov rank fifth by combined ranking. World No.2 Antomi Ramos-Viera and fellow Spaniard Gerard Rodriguez, the No.4 seeds, face a similarly tough task against Aruban duo Aksel Samardzic and Sander Castro.
In contrast, top seeds and current world champions Alessandro Calbucci and Michele Cappelletti will face Japanese duo Satoshi Goda and Naoki Yamamoto, while Brazilian No.3 seeds Andre Ricardo Baran and Vinicius Font open against Latvia’s Maksimilians Niklass Andersons and Nikita Ribakovs.
In the 17-team women’s draw, top seeds Sofia Cimatti and Giulia Gasparri will open their World Beach Games bid against Puerto Rican wildcards Beatriz Rivera and Claudia Lopez, while fellow Italians Flaminia Daina and Nicole Nobile, the No2 seeds, will face San Marino’s Marika Colonna and Alice Grandi.
Women’s world champion Rafaella Miiller and Brazilian partner Joana Cortez, the No.3 seeds, face a potentially tricky opener against French sisters Marie-Eve and Mathilde Hoarau, and Russian No.4 seeds Daria Churakova and Irina Glimakova take on Spanish duo Eva Fernandez and Sabrina Lopez.
In Saturday’s preliminary round, Venezuela’s Valentina Persad and Iosune Roncal will take on Catarina Alexandrino and Manuela Cunha of Portugal for the chance to face USA duo Nadia Johnston and Nicole Melch in the first round.
With 11 teams given byes to the second round of the mixed doubles draw, there will be five matches on Saturday, with hosts Qatar represented by Sultan Khalifan and Mubaraka Al Naimi against Japan’s Naoki Yamamoto and Erina Otsuka – the opening match on Katara Beach’s Center Court.
Italian duos bookend the mixed doubles drawsheet, with top seeds Cappelletti and Cimatti awaiting the winner of the USA-Russia clash between Carlos Rivera and Nicole Melch and Nikolay Guryev and Liudmila Nikoyan. Giovannini and Daina, the No.2 seeds, will face either Portugal’s Pedro Malo and Catarina Alexandrino or Satoshi Goda and Aoi Shibayama of Japan.
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