They might have been battered and bruised but Giulia Gasparri and Ninny Valentini still found a way to defend their title at the ITF Beach Tennis World Championships in Terracina with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Patty Diaz and Rafaella Miiller on Saturday night.

As No. 1 seeds and reigning champions, all eyes were on the Italian duo, who have picked up seven titles already this year, but with Valentini, in particular, struggling with shoulder and knee injuries it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that they weren’t sure they would even be able to compete at one point.

“Before the semi-final, we both cried a little bit because we thought I wasn’t able to play,” explained Valentini. “Then we tried, it went good, we won, and we tried again for the final and we won again.

“I had a lot of pain in the shoulder today – more than in the other days. I had to change a lot of things in the game. Today, it was impossible to smash and I needed to find solutions so we’re really happy. It was a really hard week. Giulia supported me all this week, as always.”

Gasparri, who had lost her voice after the victory, praised her team-mate’s resilience.

“First of all, I have to say thank you to Ninny,” she said. “I am proud of us and our work and of her especially because this week I was really stressed with her injury in her shoulder and in her knee. Day-by-day, it was hard and now I am really happy. I don’t have the words to say how much I feel in this moment.”

For Valentini it wasn’t just winning in the face of her injury that pleased her. Coming back to Terracina and playing in her home country as the team to beat and coping with the pressure of all of that is what she will take away from this week.

“All players work all year to win the World Championships,” she explained. “It’s the most important title so it’s difficult to play relaxed and not feel anxious.

“For us, it’s the most important. This year was much more difficult than the last year, much harder to defend the title.”

Diaz and Miiller, who staged an extraordinary comeback from 6-0 down in the match tiebreak of their semi-final against Sofia Cimatti and Nicole Nobile, finished runners-up for a second straight year.