For one week long, Aruba hosted the Aruba Open Beach Tennis Championship 2022 which saw the participation of various beach tennis athletes.
Sjoerd de Vries, the organizer of the Beach Tennis Aruba 2022 Championship, indicated that the competition is back in Aruba after a three-year hiatus. The competition saw fewer participants from Brazilians and Venezuela. In the past, many Venezuelans were unable to fly to Aruba due to the situation in the country and Brazilians also encountered difficulties with traveling. But the event still saw many people fly in from Italy, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico, and many more. The composition of the event was different than in 2019.
With regards to the competition, de Vries experienced it as the best until now. The event went to plan from start to finish. The first competition on Sunday commenced with a tiebreaker and singles matches that went according to plan. The player Axel Samardzic, who represented Aruba, beat the number play in the world, Ramos Viera of Spain. There was also the Nations Cup in which Aruba reached the final. The level of beach tennis played in Aruba has grown which is something positive.
THE YOUTH SHOULD PLAY MORE
De Vries believes that more youth should be involved in the sport. The sport is very popular amongst the younger generations as it low key and fun but can also be taken more seriously by training more and harder. “We need to step up the discipline for the categories.” They are working on a very important program to stimulate this.
