From June 23 to July 2, the Russian Beach Tennis Championship was held in Rybinsk, which brought together not only the strongest players from all over the country, but also the best juniors on the sand of SC Zvezda. And the tournament went great.
In general, the national championship is a special event for Russian beach tennis. And this is not even a decent amount of prize money, although 1.5 million rubles for this sport is quite impressive money. It’s also about the status: the main tournament, the strongest players, the high requirements for the organization. Why is such an event held in small Rybinsk, with a population of less than 200 thousand people, how did the Russian championship get here? Everything is tritely simple, but more on that below.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the national championship, along with the championship, lasted 10 days. For starters, the under 15s and under 17s played for their medals and cups, a mad battle broke out in the decisive match for the girls. In the most important final, the hosts of the court, Diana Izraileva and Anastasia Stepanyuk, met the representatives of St. Petersburg, Yuliana Andreeva and Arina Bezugla, who had recently lost in the semifinals of the World Championship. This time, the Rybinsk couple, to the delight of local spectators, managed to take revenge, but the fate of the title was decided only in a tiebreaker – 3: 6, 6: 1, 11: 9. A little later, both juniors from Rybinsk finished again in the final, but already facing each other, in mixed doubles. There, fortune smiled on Diana, who together with Arseniy Tarasov became the two-time champion of Russia-2023 – 7:5, 7:5.
– The victory in a pair with Nastya, of course, is more important and a priority than the mixed one. We have been doing it for so many years, we have taken third place at the Russian championships more than once, and now, finally, it turned out. This year we really trained a lot, we prepared tactically, we tuned in. So this gold is worth a lot. And it was nice to win the mixed doubles, ”Soviet Sport correspondent Yulia Ivanova quotes Diana Izraileva.
Photo credit: Ksenia Neiman
In the adult part of the tournament, the main focus was on one of the best beach tennis players on the planet, Nikita Burmakin. The fourth world ranking number came to Rybinsk almost directly from Brazil, where he, along with Brazilian Andre Baran, won two straight ITF Beach Tennis World Tour tournaments. At the same time, in both victorious finals, they faced the best pairing in the world today, Gianotti/Spoto, but both times they were forced to admit defeat.
On the arena of the Zvezda sports center, Nikita, who played with the young Sergey Samokhvalov, had no particular problems until the final match, and only had to sweat in the decisive match. The second seeds of the tournament Maxim Ionin and Dmitry Pavlov imposed a fight on the favorites, during the match they even led the score, although in the end they lost – 4:6, 3:6.
– The Russian Championship is a special tournament that I have been playing since the first year of my participation in beach tennis competitions. At first it was the main tournament of the year. Then, when I got into the national team, I began to compete at the European and world championships, on the world tour – these competitions became more important and important for me, but at the same time I always tried to get to the Russian championship. . No matter how difficult the schedule is, no matter how many international tournaments there are, the Russian Championship is where I always try to get to.
Photo credit: Ksenia Neiman
I really like playing in Rybinsk and it’s great that the Russian championship is given to this city again and again. There is a convenient highway from St. Petersburg – 8 hours by train, very comfortable. The atmosphere here is good, the city itself is very interesting. Arena SC Zvezda is not in the center of the city, it always breathes very well, and this year the weather is also perfect: no heat, no rain, it’s great to play. And I like the sand – elastic, not hard, you move comfortably around the site, while it is completely atraumatic.
I am very grateful to the organizers of the championship: the leadership, the composition, the personnel. The whole team works very well together, they love beach tennis here, and this is very important, Nikita told Sovetsky Sport correspondent Yulia Ivanova. Read the full interview of the Russian beach tennis star on our website in the near future.
Photo credit: Ksenia Neiman
The women’s part of the tournament had a mini-sensation: the favorites of the championship Elizaveta Kudinova and Anastasia Semenova, representing Samara and Rybinsk, lost in the decisive match to the girls from St. Petersburg Irina Glimakova and Daria Churakova – 4:6, 1 :6, and was only in second place. Semyonova also won bronze in the mixed doubles, where she played the new champion of Russia Samokhvalov.
The answer to the question of how a modest city on the Volga got the right to host the Russian championship was given by the director of the tournament, Yuri Gerasimov. It’s simple: in Rybinsk there is something that is not found anywhere else in Russia – 10 courts in one place and the entire infrastructure for holding is not just within walking distance, but within arm’s reach. And the most serious experience in holding competitions of this level, because the Russian championship is being held at the Zvezda sports complex for the sixth time. And, judging by the enthusiastic reviews of athletes and officials, it is far from the last.
Photo credit: Ksenia Neiman
