Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/193236
ITF BEACH TENNIS TOUR LIFE'S A BALL O As beach tennis grows in popularity, Jamie Renton went to the European Beach Tennis Championships for ITFWorld to meet some of the sport's characters. I t's a sunny August morning in Brighton on Britain's south coast and there's a trickle of bronzed athletic types walking purposefully along the promenade with what appear to be miniature tennis bags on their backs. Their destination? The inviting sand courts of the Yellowave Beach Sports Venue for the European Beach Tennis Championships. The facility sits at the quieter end of the Brighton seafront but there's nothing muted about the scene this weekend as the European Championships makes its British debut. When the action gets underway, a loudspeaker blares out Bob Marley while yells of 'come on', 'vamos' and 'aide' (the Bulgarian equivalent) ring out 4 ITFWORLD AUTUMN 2013 above the music inside the purpose-built arena after each delicate dropshot and successful smash. This is a sport that has taken flight in recent years and sitting in this lively environment while the combatants expertly trade a depressurised tennis ball back and forth before sportingly high-fiving their opponents at every change of ends, it's not hard to see why. The European Beach Tennis Championships is one of four flagship events on the ITF Beach Tennis Tour in 2013, along with the World Championships, World Team Championship and, new for 2013, the Pan American Championship which took place in Porto Seguro, Brazil on 17-20 September.