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Latvian weekend

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Tuesday, 15 March 2016 08:46

Latvian weekend

Riga held two ITF BT tournaments of 0$ category on 5-6 March, where the athletes from Latvia, Russia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Belarus and many other countries met on O-Sands courts of Olimpic Sport complex. The competitions were held not only in the professional categories Men Doubles and Women Doubles, but in Juniors category under 14 years also.

ITF BT TOUR
Estonians Anelli Luik and Liselle Pruul became the WD Champions of Saturday’s tournament, the finalists are Anna Svaronoka and Irina Kurach. On Sunday Anya and Ira took won the Champion title, beating Russian finalists Stanislava Naumova and Natalya Sizonenko.

In MD category Saturday tournament was won by Nikita Burmakin and Andrey Maximov, who beat Zaichenko brothers. The Champions of Sunday tournament were Nils Muschiol and Nikolay Guryev, who beat Stanislav and Vladislav Zaichenko in the semifinals, became the finals.

ITF BT TOUR

Junior tournament was held on circle system, and was won by Russians.

Participants of Riga tournaments shared their impressions with BTRUSSIA:

Nikolay Guryev (Russia)

Nikolay Guryev (Russia)BTRUSSIA: How did you like organization?

Nicolay: I am satisfied by organization of the tournament, everything was at a good level. Water was for free, the sand is comfortable to play, the net at the correct level and tightened perfectly, the matches followed each other quickly. Two points that stand apart from the common rut:
1) Balls. I only played two semifinals with new balls, other matches we had to play of those that were on courts.
2) Sunday schedule wasn't so perfect, so the number of courts and time weren’t enough to make the entire tournament; there were some conflicts about it.

BTRUSSIA: What do you think about your results?

Nicolay: First tournament - my unfortunate mistake led to defeat in the semifinals – that’s bad. The result is logical in general. We won the second tournament, so nothing to complain. We improved mistakes of the first tournament.


Nils Muschiol (Germany)

Nils Muschiol (Germany)BTRUSSIA: How did you like organization?

Nils: Previous tournaments in Riga were better, but only because of the schedule (one tournament for two days), and it was much easier to manage your time. I guess, it was a mistake to make two beach tennis tournaments, junior competitions and beach volleyball tournaments in two days on the same courts.

BTRUSSIA: Which matches you can highlight?

Nils: I loved to play against Zaychenko, both matches. At the first tournament we didn’t make important points, and our opponents played tough and made important points very good. Both matches were tough, we were close to win, and then they were close to win, but the last set was the best! And that’s why we won in the end. 18 points in row for us and the score 6:1… I think, it was the best set in my life.

BTRUSSIA: How was your partnership with Nikolay Guryev? You already played with him before. Did something change?

Nils: Я постоянно играю с немцами, а Николай не привык играть с не русскоговорящими партнерами, это сложный, но полезный опыт для нас обоих. Мы должны учиться на этом опыте.
This time communication was much better, we crossed the language barrier, and almost didn’t let misunderstanding moments (when we both were on the same side of the court and let another side empty). I mean these moments are presents for the opponents and last time is was much often. This time we communicate well, we talked about serves and discussed strategy. I play with Germans all the time and Niko doesn’t used to play with non-speaking russian players, it was difficult, but useful experience for both of us. We should learn from it.


Vasiliy Reutov (Russia, Junior)Vasiliy Reutov (Russia, Junior)

Vasiliy: I liked the tournament, there were a lot of good opponents. Since I had a new partner, I was worried, but he surprised me as he played much better than usual. I also liked that many players were talking to us and making jokes, and also I liked that we had no rivals, who always arguing.


Liudmila Nikoyan (Russia)

Liudmila Nikoyan (Russia)BTRUSSIA: Tell us about the performance of our juniors in the tournament in Riga.

Ludmila: I was shocked by the level of their game: technique, combinations, communication, reliability, good footwork! They greatly grow up from last summer. Their coach works great! Big thanks to Artem (Paramonychev* - editor's note), for despite his busy schedule, he doesn't miss trainings with them! So they deserve to take the first Cup in this season in Riga!

BTRUSSIA: What are your plans for spring and summer with the guys? Will they take part in new tournaments before WTC in Moscow?

Ludmila: Our plans for spring and summer unexpectedly were corrected after bad news from Dmitry Vikharev - juniors time on the "Youth" club was taken and sold to someone. We managed to "save" two hours by paying a training time which was provided for free previously. I know that kids always look forward to these trainings and come as to a holiday; it is a pity that in Moscow we don’t have enough sport centers for practicing beach sports!
We have tournament plans before WTC, but me and Artem we are both upset with the current situation: children train, don’t miss lessons, go to the tournament by themselves, show the great result (the team has not lost a single match in Riga!) – and in the end we have bad surprises with courts...

Artem ParamonychevAlso the coach of junior team Russia Artem Paramonychev commented last tournaments and future plans:

The members of Russian junior team in Riga were: Vasily Reutov, Arjankin Anton, Glazkova Ekaterina and Romanova Anna. The guys played 2 days in a row, on the first day – doubles, on the second day – mixed doubles! Both days our team did not lose a single game and won the first place in team competition among the 4 teams (Riga-1, Riga-2, Estonia, Russia), unfortunately, Riga weren’t able to bring the strongest girls.

Everybody is very happy with the performance of our juniors, but there is always something to work on, especially before the upcoming Russian Championships, which will be a qualifier for the WTC in July. To WTC our guys have to play another 2 tournaments (maybe there will be more): the first will be held in St. Petersburg on 1-2 April, it will be a Russian tournament categories, and the second on 16-17 April in Riga - the ITF under 16 tournament category, this will be the first international tournament in which our juniors can gain their first international points. Also we plan to prepare for the tournaments by training and hope to manage a training camp in Italy before the WTC in Moscow!


We were able to talk about the Junior tournament with the organizer – Marina Trefilova (Latvia):

Marina Trefilova (Latvia)BTRUSSIA: Marina, tell us how came the idea of an international Junior tournament?

Marina: The idea of the Junior tournaments as a part of the adult competition was in the air since the world team championship in Moscow. It is clear that without the Junior division, the sport is won’t grow fast, so most of the federations have been creating Junior teams. We are lucky in terms of the availability of the necessary infrastructure to provide regular training for both - adults and juniors throughout the year in Latvia. And though we still have problems with coaches, techniques and juniors who are ready to go in a new sport, we work on it. That is why in the team tournament from Latvia attended two Junior national teams. As for the "team" kind of the tournament, that was originally the idea of team tournaments, including adult and junior division, to give opportunity represent country for bt lovers and for beginners who have no such opportunity for high-level competitions. Like the tournament we held in the beginning of the year - Lithuania - Latvia, borrowing the idea from our past organizational experience in tennis. Unfortunately, for tournaments in March, we just didn't have enough time and courts for a full-scale team of the tournament, and we were limited to the juniors. But we will surely implement this idea later!

BTRUSSIA: Which countries participated? And how many participants were at the tournament?

Marina: Junior team tournament in March was attended by 4 teams, one from Russia, one from Lithuania and 2 from Latvia. Each team had 4 people from 12 to 14 years. Belarus should participate too, but, unfortunately, it did not happen. I hope that the next tournament will have more teams.

BTRUSSIA: Tell us more about Junior tournament? Guys told they played a round system with 1 set.
Marina: Juniors played in groups of 4 pairs each, round, 1 set to 6. Each victory brought a point to the team. The outright winner, who did not lose a single game, was Russian team, the second place with 7 points took one of the Latvian teams.

For kids this kind of tournaments will be a great holiday where they can play, and understand more, and raise their level. For coaches - a great opportunity to see something, we need to work on before fthe upcoming world team championship. Tournament was held together with adult pro tournaments, which was attended by nearly 20 athletes from the TOP 100 world rankings of national teams of different countries. So guys can not only play but to watch "live" the game of senior colleagues and communicate with them between games. It is a pity that we, as organizers, simply did not have enough time for the organization of joint leisure activities for juniors. But in the future we will try to diversify the tournament with a tour program!

BTRUSSIA: Are there any plans in the future for more junior competitions?

Marina: I would like to add that tournament was free for juniors; all the costs of court time, prizes and gifts for participants were taken by the Latvian Union Beach Tennis. As for future plans: we are going to include Junior events in the adult part of the competition. Some of them will be a team, some – personal competitions. On April 16-17 within the framework of the ITF tournament Riga Cup we are planning a separate tournament for juniors up to 16 years. Category 14-15 years - most drop-down tournament in beach tennis today. They can’t play in the Junior category because it’s too late, and also they can’t play in adult pro category (especially boys) – because it’s too early. So we try to give the opportunity to play to new players in this age category.

ITF BT TOUR

On May 20-22, we are planning the opening of the summer season, our summer base Beach Tennis Club in Jurmala, 2 major international tournaments ITF and the presentation of the summer camp beach tennis. Definitely within these events will be a Junior team tournament and we a pleased to invite teams from different countries or even cities to participate!
For sure there were some problems with schedule, the breaks in the matches, withdrawing from the games because of the inability to participate at a later time. But we hope that the tournament in Riga will grow, attracting more and more athletes and increasing the category of the competition! We wish to organizers and players more strength, mutual understanding and a positive attitude! In the end a good mood is the main thing in beach tennis, and you can get it on courts of the O-Sands!

 
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  • Reporter BTRussia.com Ekaterina Bobkova
  • * All rights reserved. No part of these pages, either text or image may be used without a link on this site.
  • Photo: Beach Tennis Star, Facebook.com

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