Viva Italia! Team Travels From Italy To Win Beach Tennis USA's® 2007 National Championship
Nadia Johnston Captures Third Straight Women's Title; Two-Time Defending Men's Champs Henderson & Whitesell Ousted in Semifinals
Under a picture-perfect, sun-splashed sky in Long Beach, NY, Beach Tennis USA’s third annual National Championship Tournament was held on Sept. 1-2, 2007. The event on Labor Day weekend showcased some of the best beach tennis talent in the world as over 50 men's and women's teams from across the country, as well as several top international teams, battled it out in the sand. Over 10,000 spectators took in the action during the course of the weekend.
The weekend-long tournament took place on the beach at Riverside Boulevard in Long Beach, with matches on Saturday and Sunday. Capping the event were the Women's and Men's finals, which closed out the action on Sunday afternoon. The enthusiastic capacity crowd was treated to live music throughout the day on Sunday; local cover band Witch's Brew and Brooklyn rapper, Special performed during breaks in the beach tennis action while national recording artist Lisa Bouchelle held a free concert in the afternoon.
In the tournament, the Men's Pro division was dominated by the team of Matteo Marighella and Alex Mingozzi from Ravenna, Italy. The Italians came in as the top-ranked beach tennis team in the world and they backed up that reputation by ousting two-time defending Beach Tennis USA National Champions Chris Henderson and Phil Whitesell from Charleston, SC in the semifinals before rolling to victory in the finals by a score of 8-2 over Timo Siebert and Matt Hane, also from Charleston.
For the third straight year, Long Beach, NY resident Nadia Johnston was a member of the Women's Pro division winning team. Backed by her hometown fans, Johnston and her new partner, Arpi "RPM" Kojian from Long Beach, CA, easily defeated sisters Laura and Lisa Maloney from San Diego 8-3 in the finals.
The Men's and Women's first-place teams won $5,000 apiece and beach tennis bragging rights until at least the end of the 2008 season.
In yet another sign of beach tennis' growing popularity in America, both the Men’s and Women's finals were filmed for broadcast on Tennis Channel, SportsNet New York (SNY) and Comcast SportsNet.
Special thanks to Jim Lorenzo and his staff at Imagine It Events for making this year's National Championship our best event yet.
Many thanks to our National Championship tournament sponsors:
• Adup Corporation
• Cobra Sports
• Function Drinks
• Head
• Long Beach Tennis Center
• Maxx's Deli
• Monkey Muffins
• PAL Environmental Safety Corp.
• Penn
• Poland Spring
• Powder Pouch
• PRI (Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers)
• Sutton Place
Click to view photos!
Click to view/download the Championship brochure! (PDF)