Beach Tennis was born in the summer of 1979 among friends who frequented one of the “bagno” dealerships in Marina di Ravenna, province of Emilia-Romagna in Italy. That summer and the following ones, enthusiasts, carrying compact rackets and tennis balls, played in the volleyball nets. The game was slow due to the height of the net. At this time, the first competitions appeared.

A few years later, they decided to lower the height of the net. The game has become faster and, accordingly, more interesting and fun. For a few years both versions were played, until, in 1990, the height of the net was established at 1.70m.

Giandomenico Bellettini became interested in the game, creating the IFBT (International Federation of Beach Tennis) in 1997, making a huge contribution to basic legislation and to the growth of the sport. From a free game with no defined rules or tactics, we started to play with scores derived from tennis, but without advantages or second serve. In this way, the game was more exciting.

The first website of the modality appears and the competitions are extended to the “over”. The first international competitions are organized with the participation of players of various nationalities.

The Beach Tennis World Cup has become a mandatory destination for lovers of the sport from all over the world. In Italy, Beach Tennis began to be practiced in the provinces from north to south and also in Sardinia.

However, the dimensions of the beach volleyball field were changed from 18x9m to 16x8m. Beach Tennis ended up adopting the new measures.

Giandomenico Bellettini, between 2001 and 2008, organized the biggest tournament of the modality, the “Mundial IFBT”. The athletes came from different regions of Italy and from different countries. The players were more than a thousand, participating in different categories.

In 2008 Beach Tennis was divided. In Italy, some players continued to play IFBT tournaments, others started to play tournaments within FederTennis. The best players gradually stopped playing IFBT tournaments. That same year, dialogues began for Beach Tennis to unify. From then on, Beach Tennis came under the jurisdiction of the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and the respective National Federations.

Nowadays, Beach Tennis is present on five continents. Italy continues to be one of the reference countries for the sport with the best players in the world. Brazil occupies an increasingly prominent position, not only due to the growing number of players of all ages and all levels due to the opening of clubs in the sport, but also due to the high quality of Brazilian players.