Originating in Italy, beach tennis has been gaining thousands of players in Brazil in a short space of time, to the point of making the country one of the main centers of the sport that combines ball, sand and racket, thanks to doors opened by players from the “Belpaese”.
One of them is Gian Luca Padovan, who was responsible for installing the first court for lessons and practice of the sport in Rio de Janeiro in 2008. “Brazilians needed a beach sport that was easy and could embrace a part of the population that was unable to enjoy footvolley or beach volleyball,” he said in an interview with ANSA.
“The secret of beach tennis is the ability to bring together people of all levels,” adds Padovan, who has lived in Rio since 2006 and has seen an increase in the flow of “beach tennis players” in clubs, beaches and gyms.
One of the first to practice the sport in his home country, when it was still called “rakkettone”, the Italian says that the mixture of European “pragmatism” with Brazilian “fantasy” gave rise to a green-and-yellow “signature” in the practice of beach tennis.
According to the Italian Tennis Federation (ITF), the sport emerged on the country's beaches in the 1970s, but professionalization only began two decades later. In Brazil, its popularity exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic, as beach tennis was considered a safe practice because it involved physical distancing.
The Brazilian Tennis Confederation (CBT) estimates that the number of players between 2021 and 2023 rose from 400 to around 1,1 million.
“What helped the sport, although it’s a bit of a strange thing to say, was the pandemic. It made beach tennis an escape valve and a favorite sport in Brazil,” he says.
Another Italian beach tennis player attracted to Brazil is the multi-champion Michele Cappelletti, currently number 3 in the world. In the view of the athlete, who lives in São Paulo, the strong connection between the countries influenced the popularization of the sport.
“It’s a sport that was born in Italy, and I think we also influenced it because of the connection between Italy and Brazil. It’s growing little by little, and there are still some difficulties that are part of the journey of a very young sport, but beach tennis is perfect for Brazil, since Brazilians love being on the sand and at the beach,” Cappelletti explained to ANSA.
The athlete, who predicts a “positive” future for beach tennis in Brazil, believes that the nation’s climate favors the practice and praises the “affection” that Brazilians have for Italians.
"In Brazil, you can play on open courts all year round. Beach tennis is a sport that is not played indoors, so few tournaments are played in these conditions.
Trying to be one of the best in the world will be difficult if you don't live in Brazil or spend at least six months here”, says the Italian, who has practiced the sport since he was a child. (HANDLE)
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