each weekend, i play beach tennis with a pleasant group of men and women, whose ages range from twenty something up to my age. they're from various countries, including czech republic, england, russia, singapore, germany, tunisia, and two of us from the usa. lots of fun, and a good workout.
here's a photo i took last sunday of pavel (czech), anna (singapore), aengus (uk, irish, and canadian passports), and mariem (tunisia and uk passports).
invented in italy in the early 1970s, beach tennis is now played in over 50 countries, its greatest popularity being in italy, brazil, and spain. it's a vigorous game that provides an excellent cardio workout. it's a low impact game for the knees, so it's good for old folks like me.
played on beach sand, the scoring is the same as tennis. a depresserized tennis ball is used, which is hit by wooden paddle racket. the ball can't hit the ground, so it's all about serve and volley. no second serve, court the same size as in beach volleyball, the net slightly lower. there are international tournaments, which feature very high quality play. here's a sample of highlights from a tournament in mallorca.
a landlocked country, prague is not known for its beaches. but we are lucky to have the Beach Tenis Kapitol facility in prague 4. below is a photo from their website that shows what the courts are like. in winter, this is covered with a roof, allowing us to play all year round!
