Gasparri and Valentini continue winning ways in Terracina

Giulia Gasparri and Ninny Valentini only arrived in Terracina on Monday night, but by Tuesday afternoon they were already through to the second round of the ITF Beach Tennis World Championships.

The Italian duo, fresh from their victory at the European Beach Tennis Championships, came through a tricky first round clash against Gasparri’s former playing partner Federica Bacchetta and Giulia Renzi 7-5 6-4, but coming from the colder climes of Bulgaria to the heat of Italy presented its challenges for the No. 2 seeds.

“We travel a lot,” explained Valentini. “We went to Russia and then Bulgaria so it’s hard to adjust. It was very difficult because they are a good team. We are happy and now we relax.”

Another team pleased to get past a potential banana skin was fourth seeds Joana Cortez and Flaminia Daina, who defeated Italian qualifiers Elena Francesconi and Irene Mariotti 6-3 6-3.

Brazilian Cortez explained: “It’s important to win the first match. They are coming from qualies, they are juniors playing very good. It’s important to win the first round after two tournaments where we played not very good.”

Daina added: “It’s always good to be here. This is like my house, because it’s close to my home in Rome, so I’m really happy and proud to be here. We’re going to do our best in the next rounds.”

Maraike Biglmaier, one half of the 2019 women’s world champions, is competing with a new partner in the shape of Veronica Casadei, but the German is hoping to continue her unbeaten run in women’s doubles in Terracina.

Biglmaier and Casadei came back from 4-2 down in the opening set to defeat Spain’s Omaira Farias and Eva Fernandez Palos 6-4 6-3.

“I have a lot of good memories on this beach,” said Biglmaier. “Every time I’m here I feel good. It’s just a big change from the last weeks where the weather was cold. We hope for an even more solid match tomorrow!”

In the men’s doubles, top seeds Michele Cappelletti and Antomi Ramos Viera showed they mean business on the world stage with a comprehensive 6-1 6-0 victory over Russia’s Dmitrii Pavlov and Igor Zhukov.

Cappelletti won the World Championships alongside Alessandro Calbucci in 2019 (defeating Ramos and Nicolas Gianotti in the semi-finals) but with Calbucci not competing, the Italian-Spanish combo have been playing at a very high level this year and certainly look like one of the teams to beat.

Reflecting on his victory two years ago, Cappelletti said: “For sure, Terracina brings me very good memories. Last time I played here it was one of the best victories of my life. We were not one of the favourites and we managed to play an amazing final against [Nikita] Burmakin and [Tommaso] Giovannini.

“This is a very good memory but this is the past and I’m focussed on the here and now. I’m very happy to be here. Terracina, for me, even before the World Championships was a tournament that I played many times so I know this place, I know these courts. They give me good feelings and we try to be positive and get focussed on the next matches.”

Should the matches go according to seedings, Cappelletti and Ramos will meet Burmakin and Giovannini in the final. The second seeds raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening set against Peter Campedelli and Tomas Casoli before taking their foot off the gas.

The Russian-Italian duo still prevailed 6-4 6-1 and Giovannini believes the pair have grown up since their 2019 final defeat.

“We grow up, as a player and also as people,” said the Italian. “We are more mature – mostly me because Nikita was already a big man. Me I was younger, I was 23. A lot of things happen in life and we are more a team now than two years ago.”

The biggest upset of the day saw sixth seeds Ramon Guedez and Aksel Samardzic fall to Italian combo Marco Garavini and Luca Meliconi 6-4 6-4.

Play continues on Wednesday with all eight women’s doubles second round matches scheduled to take place.