It has been a long six months for beach tennis fans, but the ITF Beach Tennis World Tour came back with a bang at the BT50 Melilla tournament.

An all-Spanish ensemble contested both the men’s and women’s event, which was held in one of the two Spanish cities located on mainland Africa on September 12-13.

The official ball of the tournament was SANDEVER, world-renowned for the resistance and durability it offers to players whose serving speeds surpass 150 km/h.

Top seeds in the men’s competition were world No. 4 Antonio Ramos, who was the highest-ranked player competing on San Lorenzo beach, and Pol Filella (ranked No. 111).

Ramos and Filella looked to be in commanding form as they progressed to the final for the loss of just two games – dropping one in each of their quarter-final and semi-final showdowns.

But the final was quite a different encounter.

No. 2 seeds Victor Lopez Rubio and Saulo Tejado Demaso – ranked 71 and 105 respectively – had shown they would be no pushover in the final having made light work of their opponent’s in the run-up to the showpiece match-up.

With the score level at 4-4 in the opening set, and with both pairings having broken serve once already, it was Lopez and Tejada who dealt better with the pressure to take the first set 6-4.

And the story was much the same in the second set, as the No. 2 seeds broke in the fifth game with some excellent play before closing out the match 6-4 6-4.

Lopez said: “I’m very proud to be the champion of the first ITF tournament after quarantine. Furthermore, I was really happy to see that it was celebrated in my city, Melilla. I would like to thank the organization because of the great job they carried out to complete the tournament with the security measures and without any kind of risk.

“These months of quarantine have been very productive to train physically and mentally; but the fact of not having tournaments to compete made the players feel sad and anxious to return. I hope after this tournament other cities encourage themselves to celebrate more competitions.”

In the women's draw, Omaira Farias and Eva Fernandez Palos were proclaimed the champions but their path to victory was anything but smooth.

Top seeds Farias (No. 41) and Fernandez (No. 23 – the highest-ranked Spanish woman) were pushed hardest in their semi-final against the local pairing of Noa Farias and Maria Martinez, who at the age of just 14 looks set for a promising future.

Farias and Fernandez prevailed in a super tiebreak 3-6 6-2 10-6 to set up a final encounter against No. 2 seeds Ganesha Diaz (ranked No. 94) and Sabrina Lopez Garcia (No. 24).

The meeting promised to be exciting and did not disappoint. In the first set, Farias and Fernandez started strong, breaking their rivals' serve on several occasions to take the opening set 6-1.

Despite an early break for Diaz and Lopez in the second set, it was Farias and Fernandez who prevailed 6-1 7-5 to continue their fine run of form that saw them win four Mapfre League events in the build-up to BT50 Melilla.

Fernandez said: “I am super happy to have won this first ITF [event] that has been organized after confinement, and more so to have been in Melilla, who always welcome me with open arms and make me feel at home.”

Farias added: “I will be back to defend the title with my great partner Eva Fernandez. I know we can achieve anything because until the last point we are always fighting. Thank you to everyone for making this possible.”

Attention now turns to the other side of the Atlantic as next month San Diego prepares to host two BT50 events for the first time. Further down the line, the Caribbean island of St Barts looks set to host a BT50 tournament on 31 October.

SANDEVER is the Global Development Partner for Beach Tennis. Click here for more information