Learning the ropes
After flying in to Moscow yesterday for the ITF Beach Tennis World Team Championships 2013, GB turned up this morning full of anticipation and raring to go for the first day of the tournament.
This is the first time Britain have been represented at this tournament which meant that myself and team mates Katy Shaw, Gary Thompson and Yannis Toumazsis were not only proud to be selected but were hoping we could kick off our debut with a win.
We had drawn Switzerland in the first round, another team out of the 20 competing nations to be a new entrant. First up was women’s doubles which could have gone better as me and Katy went down in straight sets.
The matches are best of three ties – women’s, men's and mixed which meant that we'd need to win the next two matches to win the tie.
At one set all Gary and Yannis looked like they could have taken their match, before losing in a close third set, before Katy and Gary went three sets in their mixed but unfortunately came out on the losing side. A 3-0 loss sends us in to the back draw but today's match was close and we expect to perform as well if not better when we play Lithuania tomorrow.
On top of the tennis we've been having great fun thanks to the ITF and the Russian Tennis Federation. An opening ceremony ending with Zumba and a player's party where each team had to perform a song (Katy and I went for a rather lively rap complete with dance moves and got the biggest cheer of the night!), have contributed to a fantastic first day. Let's hope tomorrow delivers the result we're after.
The Team
Surrey based Gary Thomson will be teaming up with Yiannis Toumazis in the men’s doubles rubbers. Both players are currently ranked 535 in the ITF Beach Tennis world rankings and have had success at domestic and international level.
Katy Shaw and Kim Roberts will be pairing up for the women’s doubles. Both players are currently ranked 389 in the ITF beach tennis world rankings and last year won the ITF Grade 4 event in UK.
Each match consists of three rubbers - men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Great Britain is one of 22 nations competing in the event this year, with Italy being the defending champions.
2013 ITF Beach Tennis World Team Championship
View the draws/results