Birthday boy Ramos clinches title on home soil with Cappelletti
As birthdays go, it doesn’t get much better than winning an ITF Beach Tennis World Tour Sand Series title in the place where you grew up, but that’s exactly what happened to Spain’s Antomi Ramos Viera on Sunday.
The 28 year-old, who grew up on the Canary Islands, captured the biggest title of his year so far alongside Italy’s Michele Cappelletti after defeating world champions Nikita Burmakin and Tommaso Giovannini 7-5 6-1 in the Sand Series Gran Canaria final.
As if they needed it, there was an extra incentive for Cappelletti and Ramos to win because by doing so it prevented Russia’s Burmakin from re-claiming the world No. 1 ranking from Cappelletti.
After the win, Ramos announced that he would be donating part of his prize money to those affected by the volcano eruption in La Palma.
The women’s event was closely contested throughout the competition. Four former world No. 1 players took to the court for the final, which went the way of Venezuela’s Patty Diaz and Brazil’s Rafaella Miiller, who defeated Brazil’s Joana Cortez and Italy’s Flaminia Daina 4-6 6-4 [10-8] to win a third title this year.
Miiller said: “We won because we put heart, pure heart, pure head, pure energy. We were together and we stood firm.”
In total 164 players from 18 countries took part in the Sand Series event, which is part of a string of top tier beach tennis tournaments introduced by the ITF this year.
The tour continues apace with the World Cup taking place in Rio de Janeiro next week before the next two Sand Series events in Brasilia (14-17 October) and Reunion (29 October-1 November).