Review of the Beach Tennis Tour 2011
| Review of the Beach Tennis Tour 2011 | |
| ITF looks back at some of the highlights from the Beach Tennis Tour in 2011 2011 saw players battling it out for precious ITF World Ranking points in 91 tournaments staged around the globe in 21 nations. Over the course of the year players were in European action on the ITF Beach Tennis Tour 52 times with 39 visits to the rest of the world. Italian players dominance in the sport continued but the gap does seem to be narrowing between them and players from other nations, particularly in the women’s game. Leading host nation with 18 tournaments was Italy with Japan (12) and USA (10) also breaking into double figures before the end of the year. Among the leading male title winners in 2011 were Marighella & Mingozzi (8), Calbucci & Meliconi (6) and Cappelletti & Carli (5). Without Meliconi as his partner Calbucci also collected a further four titles to take his personal count to ten. Leading the way for the women were Bonadonna & D’Elia (10), Briganti & Olivieri (10) and Takahashi & Nakamura (7). The year began with a visit to San Marino in January where Cappelletti & Carli took the men’s title with Bonadonna & D’Elia claiming victory in the women’s event before ending in Brazil where the same four players were again victorious. Cappelletti & Carli, who proved a big hit winning the European Championships and collected five titles together during the year, are ones to keep an eye on in 2012. In May the Italian city of Rome staged the World Championships once more whilst September saw the European Championships move onto Bulgaria for the first time. The race to be crowned the men’s World Number One went to the final day of the 2011 season when, in Florianopolis, Brazil, Alessandro Calbucci, who had been at the head of the rankings for most of the year, failed to defend his points from 2010 and in doing so handing the title over to his long term partner Luca Meliconi. By finishing the year as the World Number One, Meliconi becomes the fourth player to hold this honour in as many years. On the women’s side the honour was shared by doubles partners Briganti & Olivieri who amassed the maximum number of ranking points. The pair were also crowned the World and European champions earlier in the year at the respective tournament championships. Final year-end rankings can be found in the .pdf documents below. Brief timeline January • San Marino gets the season underway February • No tournaments staged March • Marighella & Mingozzi win first three tournaments of the year held outside of Europe April • Luca Meliconi who would be crowned men’s number one at the end of the year wins the first of six 2011 titles with Alessandro Calbucci May • Rome host the World Championships III - 17 nationalities are represented June • First appearance of the year for the ITF Beach Tennis Tour in USA with two tournaments in New York July • Start of a busy three month spell on the Tour, 16 tournaments take place • Italy become first host nation of 2011 to enter into double figures for tournaments held August • 15 tournaments staged spanning the globe across Europe, Asia and North & South America September • European Championships IV, featuring 20 nationalities in action, are staged in Bulgaria, one of 14 tournaments this month to take place October • Japan become only the second nation of 2011 to break in to double figures for tournaments held rounding off the Japanese season with their first G1 event November • USA stage their tenth and final tournament of the year December • 2011 ends just as it began with wins for Cappelletti & Carli and Bonadonna & D’Elia • New year-end World Number One’s are revealed COBRA SPORTS |
Posted by Blog.Cobravolleyball.com at 12/30/2011 1:54 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: beach tennis beach tennis net beach tennis nets
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: beach tennis beach tennis net beach tennis nets
Comments