One year on from the 2019 Beach Tennis World Team Championships we caught up with world No. 2 Michele Cappelletti to find out how life has been during lockdown and what goals he has for the rest of the year.

Italian beach tennis star Michele Cappelletti is no stranger to playing in front of a sell-out crowd but the world No. 2 has had to swap sand between his toes for weights between his fingers as the COVID-19 pandemic has put pay to any attempts to play his beloved sport.

The 28-year-old, who has been confined to his apartment since the start of the lockdown, has stayed motivated by giving himself physical goals.

“I started a specific training regime to get some more power,” explained Cappelletti. “I started a new diet and I train at home – it’s not the same – but I have some stuff to keep training physically. It has helped me to get the motivation – especially mentally – during this tough period.”

And it’s not just his body that Cappelletti has been working on. The former world No. 1 believes he has learned some valuable lessons about himself that he can use to help him on the beach tennis court.

“I think that I understand better what are the really important things in life – for me it’s that my family is healthy,” said Cappelletti. “Our safety, our freedom is something that we always think that we have, but we saw that everything can change in one second, so I think it will help me to have more patience on the court, to be more positive in tough moments and to be a better person inside and outside the court.”

Although Cappelletti has been making the best of a bad situation he is the first to admit that he’s desperately keen to get back out on a beach tennis court.

He added: “I’m looking forward to compete again – this is the key word for me – I’m a very competitive person so the adrenaline that you feel when you play a tournament is the thing that I’m missing most. I’m looking forward to getting back to a beach tennis court and to achieve new and positive results.”

Cappelletti is aware that things will feel different when the tour does resume and he believes players might have to get used to playing in front of empty stands – something that he thinks will be a motivational challenge for everyone on the Beach Tennis Tour.

“My first hope is to get back to playing a beach tennis tournament when all the beach tennis community around the world will be able to travel and compete in a safe situation. It’s very hard now, so I don’t know what’s going to happen for the rest of the year.

“In my opinion, it would already be very positive to get back to playing international competition in October. In this moment the main market for beach tennis is Brazil, where unfortunately the situation is very negative. We don’t know what’s going to happen with this virus in the next month, but I hope to be able to compete again in 2020 and, if not, I hope to be able to start in January of the next year.”

Cappelletti is sponsored by SANDEVER, the Global Development Partner for Beach Tennis. Click here for more information