Aruba Beach Tennis Presents
2011 ARUBA INTERNATIONAL BEACH TENNIS EVENT
Coverage By Nicole Melch
DAY 1
The first day of one of the biggest tournaments of the year started in a very busy and eventful manner, with the Mens and Womens Pro Singles event. Moomba Beach, which I daresay is the most popular beach in the Caribbean when it comes to matters of Beach Tennis, was transformed into the battleground for athletes from all over the world, bringing together North and South American, Caribbean and European players to compete for ITF world ranking points, money and pride. The island of Aruba, and especially Moomba Beach were transformed into the Mecca of this amazing sport, combining world-class performances with festive atmosphere, making this event truly spectacular, outstanding and unique.
The first one of 4 dramatic and athleticism-ridden days started rather busy with singles draw, taking up every single court of the site in order to complete all the matches. In the Mens draw, some of the outstanding Brazilian players like Guilherme Prata and Vinicius Font were trying to steal the trophy but had to respectfully acknowledge the Italian dominance in the event; specially, an affair between Alessandro Calbucci and Luca Meliconi. On the Womens side, equally interesting and entertaining matches went on throughout the day, having Julie Labrit (St. Martin) and Flavia Muniz (Brazil) come out on top of everybody else. In the end, Calbucci and Labrit prevailed in very close and hard fought matches to take the victories of the Singles draws.
DAY 2
Friday was the second official day of the tournament, which in translation means Nation's Cup Day, which promised to be a great day of world class Beach Tennis. Every country (and sometimes fusions and combinations of different nations) entered teams to compete against each other for the title of Best Nation in this sport.
Naturally, team Italy and the two Brazilian teams, as well as France, Aruba and maybe the U.S were considered the favorite teams to come through pool play and make it to the semi finals. Unfortunately, there were only 4 spots open and some of the countries had hard fought battles in the group matches that lead to earlier elimination, such as Brazil 2 and Team USA. Italy, lead by the best players in the world including Calbucci, Marighella, Meliconi and Cappelletti, ended up eliminating France in the semis. On the other side of the draw, Brazil 1 lived up to their reputation and knocked out Aruba on their way to the final round.
With Moomba Beach transformed into a melting pot and friendly battlefield between Italy and Brazil, the atmosphere was just right for an exceptional face off between the two best nations in the sport. The Italian men started out strong in a close and well fought match, deciding the first match in their favor, before sending out the women to compete. Very equally matched and talented, the Brazilian girls pulled off a more than close match to tie the overall score 1-1, resulting in the crowd going wild; Brazilians, Italians and all other nations and spectators jumping off their seats after each point, and endless dance celebrations. The story line could not have been written more perfectly, since it all came down to the mixed doubles match to decide who was going to be crowned Nation's Cup winner. In the end, the much deeper pool of Italians, and Meliconi/Marino prevailed in a tight match against Lima/Muniz and the rest of Brazil, taking home the trophy yet another time.
DAY 3
With the weekend, all over events arrived, such as Intermediate, Advanced, Youth and PRO division. Needless to say, the whole beach and all courts transformed into Beach Tennis Central, where no court would be found vacant for more than 2 minutes between matches.
With around 400 entries in all events, Aruba Beach Tennis and its organizers had quite a job to accomplish, getting all matches completed in an orderly and timely manner, which was rather challenging, but handled very professionally and extraordinarily.
Saturday was the first day of all the doubles events, hence pool play day. With 6 Womens and 9 Mens pools, it had to be decided who would advance to the round of 16 for the final day of play, and as expected, the day grew long as the number of teams and the level player were great, both in the amateur/kids, as well as the PRO division.
DAY 4
The Womens draw was quite hard to predict, even though the top seeds Cortez/Muniz (Brazil) and the 2nd seeded Americans were expected to make it though the semis. With high quality matches all around, competition turned much closer and even more uncertain towards the latter rounds, resulting in one of the great Italian teams Prati/Cappelli taking revenge on the top seeds for losing to them in the finals of Nation's Cup, before losing in the semi finals to Labrit/Carien (St. Martin) in the 3rd tie-break.
On the other side of the Womens draw, Johnston/Melch (USA), who have been gradually getting better and holding their own with the top 3 teams in the world over the last year, managed to come out on top of a 3 set semi finals against Amirad/Zanuttini (FRA/ITA).
After a long day of matches and with the lights turning on for night play, the crowd on center court seemed to grow and get more enthusiastic as the day progressed, creating a great ambiance for the Womens finals. Johnston/Melch seemed very determined and focused right out of the box, not showing any nerves or doubt that they wanted to take home the trophy and write a little bit of US Beach Tennis history. Labrit/Carien, two well seasoned and talented players, who just came off a victory in St. Martin the previous week, put up a great fight and gave it their all, but could not prevail against the court movement, aggressive play and athleticism of Johnston/Melch. Taking matters into their own hands and front running the match at all times, the Americans never took their eyes off the prize and become the first American team to ever win an ITF G1 event!!
On the Mens side of the draw, matters were a bit more predictable and the top seeded teams Calbucci/Cappellett and Marighella/Meliconi were heavily favored to make it through to the finals, and throughout the tournament didn't let anything or anyone get in their way to question that. However, there were several other close matches in the quarter finals, resulting in some small upsets. Team Scheda/Lucchi (ITA) played their hearts out and knocked out Troici/Folegatti (ITA) and then one of the top teams, Prata/Font (BRA), before going down in a relatively easy semi final against Calbucci/Cappelletti (ITA) 6-0, 6-2.
The other half of the Mens draw was also an all-Italian affair, matching up veterans Chirico/Mattei with Marighella/Meliconi. In an also rather lopsided match, Marighella/Meliconi showed up for business and left the other team no opportunities, advancing 6-1, 6-2.
The finals proved to be what it promised from the beginning, the 4 best players in the world showing aggressive, fast, athletic Beach Tennis, combined with extraordinary finesse and ball control, having the crowd be off their seats most of the time. Evenly matched as expected, Marighella/Meliconi managed to turn the match in their favor, maybe risking a bit more on important plays that night.
All in al, it was a Beach Tennis spectacle with a memorable after party, just 5 minutes after the last point was played, bringing all the athletes together like on big family, despite their amicable rivalry on the court and having them celebrate like true Champions!