Mathieu Guegano and Theo Irigaray of France made history as the first non-Italian pair to win the European Beach Tennis Championships men's doubles title, ending 10 years of Italian dominance at the Championships since its inception in 2008.

With Italy boasting the Top 4 players in the world, and all four contesting the semi-finals, fans in the Jurmala City Beach Stadium in Latvia could have been forgiven for assuming an all-Italian final was on the cards.

Then came the biggest shock in the history of the European Beach Tennis Championships.

In a match that lasted almost three hours, No. 3 seeds Nikita Burmakin and Sergey Kuptsov of Russia defeated the second-seeded Italian pair of Michele Cappelletti and Luca Carli 7-6(4) 5-7 7-5, becoming the first Russian pair to reach the men's doubles final.

In the second semi-final, joint-world No. 1s Luca Cramarossa and Marco Garavini took on French pair, No. 4 seeds, Mathieu Guegano and Theo Irigaray. The Italian duo were the favourites but the Frenchmen had been in hot form, only dropping eight games in reaching the semi-finals. A 6-1 6-4 scoreline stunned the world No. 1s as Guegano and Irigaray ensured there would be no Italian representation in the men's doubles final.

The final was close, but, on the same day that France lifted the World Cup in football, the French duo were not to be denied, and ran out 7-6(5) 6-4 victors to become the first non-Italian pairing to lift the men's doubles title at the European Beach Tennis Championships.

The top four seeded pairs also reached the semi-finals of the women's doubles draw, and the similarities with the men's doubles did not stop there.

Top seeds and joint-world No. 1s Federica Bacchetta and Giulia Gasparri of Italy took on French duo Marie-Eve Hoarau and Mathilde Hoarau, while Italian second seeds Sofia Cimatti and Flaminia Daina took on the Russian pairing of Darya Churakova and Irina Glimakova.

However, the similarities ended there as the Italian pairs won in straight sets to face off in the final and ensure an eleventh straight women's doubles title for Italy.

The opening set of the final was close but Cimatti and Daina edged it 7-5. After that, the momentum was firmly in their favour as they ran out 7-5 6-0 winners to reclaim the title they had won together in 2016.

The mixed doubles final was another all-Italian affair. Top seeds Garavini and Daina teamed up to take on No. 2 seeds Michele Cappelletti and Giulia Gasparri.

The second seeds took a tight opening set 7-5 in a tiebreak, but the top seeds came storming back to take the second set 6-0 and forced a deciding match tie-break. There was nothing to split the pairs but Cappelletti and Gasparri earned a narrow 11-9 win for a 7-6(5) 0-6 [11-9] victory.

It was a second mixed doubles European Championship title for Cappelletti, who also won in 2016, but a first mixed doubles title for Gasparri.

Despite not completing a clean sweep of the titles, Italian beach tennis fans have a lot to look forward to as Italy won all three of the junior events.

Giacomo Gabellini and Andrea Nuti lifted the boys doubles title while Greta Giusti and Giulia Trippa claimed the girls doubles crown. In the mixed doubles Riccardo Manenti and Camilla Spadoni completed the Italian clean sweep.