Russian hat-trick, Spanish milestone in beach tennis junior events
A new nation and two familiar faces were among the newly-crowned champions at the Boys' and Girls' events at the ITF Beach Tennis World Championships, with Spain's Sabrina Lopez Garcia and Carla Marrero Suarez breaking Italy and Russia's two-year stranglehold on the junior titles, while Ekaterina Glazkova and Anna Romanova clinched a title for the third successive year.
When junior events were introduced at the ITF Beach Tennis World Championships in 2016, Glazkova and Romanova were the only junior champions from beyond Italy with victory in the Girls' Under-14 tournament. Two years on, the pair remain unbeaten in Cervia after defending the Under-16 title they claimed last year with an emphatic 4-1 4-1 victory over Italian duo Giorgia Cancelleri and Claudia Lazzarini, the latest chapter in a compelling teenage rivalry.
Russia had swept the three Girls' events in 2017, but Yana Lavernteva and Veronica Pershina's hopes of claiming a second in 2018 were dashed by Lopez Garcia and Marrero Suarez. The Spaniards came out on top of a tight second set to secure a 4-1 5-4(2) triumph, claiming Spain's first beach tennis world title at any level in the process.
Italy was guaranteed a sweep of the Boy's titles before a ball was struck on Saturday, with all-Italian affairs in the Boys' Under-16 and Under-18 semi-finals, following Filippo Boscolo Meneguolo and Peter Campedelli's win in the Boys' Under-14 champions on Friday, beating compatriots Tommasso Dandrea and Nicolo Gasparri 5-3 4-2.
Fellow Italians Ilaria Grandi and Guilia Renzi edged Irene Mariotti and Linda Piermattei 5-3 5-3 in the Girls' Under-14 title as Mattia Bazzi and Federico Caroli set up a Boys' Under-16 final showdown with Niccolo Cattani and Federico Paganelli, who beat Gabriele Gini and Damiano Roschini 4-2 4-1. Bazzi and Caroli were even more ruthless in their semi-final, dispatching Lorenzo Biagetti and Andrea Veronesi 4-1 4-0.
The Boys' Under-18 semi-finals were far tighter affairs. Riccardo Manenti and Andrea Reginato held off Giulio Lovascio and Mattia Spoto for a 5-3 5-3 win, while Federico Galeazzi and Fabio Venturini fought back after losing the opening set to prevail 1-4 5-3 4-1.
Catani and Paganelli roared back after losing the first set of the Boys' Under-16 final, surging away from Bazzi and Caroli 1-4 4-0 40. The final match of the junior tournament was also among the closest, with Manenti and Reginato battling back from the brink against Galeazzi and Venturini to claim the Under-18 title 3-5 5-4(4) 4-2.