Riga Autumn Cup Beach Tennis Tournament

Information for the media

16.10.2015.

Summer-like weather is expected this weekend – an international beach tennis tournament will take place

The popularity of beach tennis is growing rapidly worldwide, and in Latvia this sport has attracted a considerable number of participants at international tournaments over the past year. Although summer is the main season for playing beach tennis, few people know that the sport can be played all year round. Moreover, this autumn – from 17 to 18 October – the “Olympic Sports Centre” in Riga will host the biggest international beach tennis tournament of the year, the ITF “Riga Autumn Cup”.

The beach volleyball hall at Riga’s “Olympic Sports Centre” will become the venue for the ITF “Riga Autumn Cup” beach tennis tournament this weekend. It will be the first international tournament of the ITF winter series in the 2015/2016 season and already the fifth international beach tennis tournament to be held in Latvia this year. The tournament will bring together nearly 80 strong players from countries including Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Finland, Italy, Germany and Russia.

Beach tennis can be viewed as a combination of tennis, beach volleyball and squash, incorporating various elements of these sports. Ten years ago, the International Tennis Federation took beach tennis under its wing, making it a professional sport. Around 300 international beach tennis tournaments are held worldwide each year, and the sport is also planned to be included in the programme of the Summer Olympic Games. No special prior knowledge is required to play beach tennis, so it is accessible to everyone and can be taken up at any age.

Beach tennis is rapidly gaining momentum worldwide, attracting many followers among enthusiasts of recreation and a healthy lifestyle, as well as among the ranks of tennis stars. Such world-class tennis stars as Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi and others also play the sport. In Latvia, beach tennis is a relatively little-known sport that has developed actively only over the past year, yet it has already attracted a considerable number of participants at both local and international tournaments. Several Latvian tennis players are also passionate about beach tennis – Andis Juška, Oskars Vaskis and Irina Kuzmina plan to participate in the ITF “Riga Autumn Cup”.

 “Latvia has very good prerequisites for the development of beach tennis. Thanks to the achievements of our beach volleyball players, Latvia can be proud of having several indoor beach volleyball courts that can easily be adapted for beach tennis. This means that the sport can be played all year round. I believe that Latvia has more indoor courts than Eastern Europe as a whole, which is why Latvian athletes have great potential to become prominent in the world rankings. We can already commend the junior division, which ranks fourth at the world championship,” says Marina Trefilova, president of the Latvian Beach Tennis Association, speaking about beach tennis in Latvia.

On 17 October, Latvian beach tennis players will compete throughout the day in intense and challenging matches against players ranked among the top 100 in the world. On 18 October, starting at 11:00 a.m., several exhibition matches, master classes and free training sessions for children will take place as part of the ITF “Riga Autumn Cup”. Participants will include coaches from the Latvian Beach Tennis School, Rolands Rembergs and Oskars Vaskis, as well as players ranked among the world’s top 100 – Stanislav Zaichenko, Yulia Chubarova, Ludmila Nikoyana and others. On the day before the competition begins – Friday, 16 October, at 11:00 a.m. – everyone interested is invited to a training session led by Nikita Burmakin, the world’s No. 14-ranked player.

“In recent years, tennis has grown rapidly in popularity in Latvia, and more and more people are also taking up beach tennis. It is great that beach tennis enthusiasts in Latvia will have the opportunity offered this weekend as part of the “Riga Autumn Cup” – both high-level competition and accessible training sessions with world-class players. This sport is popular among ‘traditional’ tennis players and, because of its simplicity, is also easily accessible to anyone who wants to play, both as entertainment and as a first step towards learning to play tennis,” comments Kārlis Lejnieks, secretary general of the Latvian Tennis Union, on this distinctive sport.