From USA to Thailand, beach tennis goes from strength to strength

Beach Tennis continues to grow across the globe with back to back BT100 tournaments taking place in Singer Island, Florida and Pattaya, Thailand.       

Singer Island played host to the highest graded tournament to take place in the USA since 2014, with Aksel Samardzic and Airton Rodriguez Macedo triumphing in the men’s tournament and Samantha Barijan and Raquel Iotte in the women’s.

“We are very excited about the future of Beach Tennis in the USA”, said Jeff Waters, USTA Managing Director of Section Support and Services. “The addition of new States hosting events like Maryland this past year and the number of players participating in the recent BT100 in Singer Island, Florida are both positive signs for Beach Tennis.”

Team USA will also be represented at the ITF Beach Tennis World Cup in November, for the first time since 2016.

Meanwhile, the BT100 in Pattaya, Thailand wrapped up earlier this week, with the Japanese pairing of Eri Homma and Erina Otsuka taking the women’s title, and the Brazilian duo of Flavio Arouca and Hugo Cesar Dojas taking the men’s.

Thitithep Devahasdin, tournament director in Pattaya, said: “It gave a lot of experiences for Thai players, who had a good opportunity to see the world’s best players in action. It is a great chance and motivation for the Thai younger beach tennis generation.”

Thailand will also be returning to the World Cup for the first time since 2018.

With the global push for beach tennis continuing at full speed, players across the world will also have a keen eye on the ANOC World Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia from 6-13 August 2023, returning for its second edition after the inaugural event in Doha in 2019.

The qualification window is now open with the ITF Beach Tennis World Rankings on 5 June 2023 being used in deciding the teams accepted into the tournament.