CAPPELETTI AND BARAN SOAR IN CESENATICO, DIAZ AND MIILLER RETAIN TITLE
Venezuela’s Patricia Diaz and Brazil’s Rafaella Miiller retained their ITF Beach Tennis World Championship title and their spot at the top of the rankings on Sunday with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Italy’s Gasparri and Valentini at the World Championships in Cesenatico on Sunday.
It was a close match, the winning point falling on 40-40 scoreboard on the 5th game of the final set, with Gasparri and Valentini just missing out on their third title as a pair.
Despite the disappointment, Gasparri said after the match, “We can be proud of us; it was a tough year, and we came back in the final in the World Championships. We played a great match against the number ones in the world so we can be proud. For us it is a new beginning, and our season is going to start now.”
This will be a fourth title for Brazil’s Rafaella Miiller. Patricia described the feeling of winning her second world champion title with her partner Rafaella:
‘I think my mind is in the present, I’m just enjoying, I feel a lot of emotions – it was tense, I was passionate, it was everything. It was super difficult, you cannot believe how difficult it is to bring a match home like this, and I am super happy. We knew it was going to be difficult and I am super proud of what we did.”
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The Men’s final was another close match, however, the men’s defending champions could not replicate the women’s story. After loosing the first set 6-2, defending champs and current world number 1’s came back strong and fighting in the second set, to equalise and take the men’s final to a match tie break. With the audience screaming words of encouragement for their local hero ‘Cappa’, Baran and Cappelletti, just clinched the title of World Champs, beating Nico and Mattia 6-2, 2-6, 10-6.
Unlike his partners 6 titles, this will be Barans first world champion title – much to the delight of the Brazilians fans in the audience who stormed centre court after the match, and championship point, proudly holding Brazilian flags and posing for photos.
Additionally, this means that there will be some changes with Monday’s ranking update, as Spoto and Gianotti fall to number 2, and Baran and Cappelletti move up to take the place of the new World Number 1’s.
Baran, the first ever Brazilian man to win the title of ‘World Champion’ said after the match, “I don’t have the words to describe this moment – I dreamt for this moment and today is real. I’m really happy to play with my country and I would like to enjoy this moment to the maximum.”