SHARE
COPY LINK

TENNIS

VIDEO: Watch Italian kids play tennis across the rooftops under lockdown

Tennis players, like athletes everywhere, are finding inventive ways to train with courts closed and contact banned, but two youngsters in Italy have taken it to a higher level: the roof.

VIDEO: Watch Italian kids play tennis across the rooftops under lockdown
Vittoria and Carola hit a rally across the rooftops in Finale Liguria, northern Italy. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

When the tennis club in Finale Ligure, a small town in northern Italy, closed at the beginning of March, as part of Italy's fight against the coronavirus pandemic, its coaches challenged their young players to find inventive ways to keep training and to film themselves doing it.

The result is a series of videos posted on the Tennisclub Finale Facebook page. They showed youngsters practising their strokes with or without rackets or, in one case, with a long handled broom.

Several show players hitting balls against walls in the street or in parking lots or even in their bedroom or the family living room, with the wide-screen television positioned ominously close to the apex of the forehand swing.


Carola Pessina practices in her stairway. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

The videos resembled many others being posted on social media under the #tennisathome hashtag, but one stood out, catching the attention of the ATP and tennis players and fans around the world.

Vittoria, 14, and Carola, 11, climbed onto the rooftop terraces of their buildings, which face each other across the street.

There they lofted shots over the guard rails and the road, running round not only their backhands but also boiler vents as the ball bounced, not on the clay they are used to but on concrete slabs.

 
“It was their idea. They know each other well, they're friends and they live in neighbouring buildings,” their coach Dionisio Poggi, told AFP.

“They are not the same age, so they don't train in the same group and don't play in the same category. But they are both strong and play competitively,” the coach said.

“Carola, who is 11, is in the top two or three in the region in her age group.”

Carola serves to Vittoria from her building across the street. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

Tracy Austin, a former world number one who built her game on hitting long, retweeted the video.

“This is next level #TennisAtHome! I don't think this can be topped. Keep the ball deep.”

Men's world number six Stefanos Tsitsipas was also impressed. “Really nice to see,” tweeted the Greek star.


Vittoria Olivieri collects fallen tennis balls using a fishing rod. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

Vittoria and Carola are enjoying the attention.

“The girls saw that it was getting bigger. They're overjoyed,” said coach concluded.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

COVID-19

Anti-vaxxer assaults Covid-era Italian PM Conte at rally

An anti-vax campaigner on Friday assaulted Italy's former premier Giuseppe Conte, who imposed strict restrictions at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, his political party said.

Anti-vaxxer assaults Covid-era Italian PM Conte at rally

Conte was “attacked by an anti-vaxxer in Massa”, a small Tuscan city where he was attending an election rally, his opposition party the Five Star Movement wrote on Facebook.

News agency Ansa said the man struck Conte in the face, blaming him for the lockdown policies imposed during the pandemic and other measures. Police officers later took him away.

As well as his own party, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “solidarity” with Conte.

“Any form of violence must be condemned without hesitation,” Meloni said in a statement. “Dissent must be civil and respectful of people and political groups.”

Prime minister from June 2018 to February 2021, Conte was the head of government when the Covid-19 outbreak suddenly struck northern Italy in February 2020.

Italy was the first country outside China to suffer a major outbreak of Covid-19.

The virus has killed nearly 190,000 people in Italy to date, according to the health ministry.

Conte imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions in the early phase of the pandemic, including an economically crippling shutdown and the mandating of face masks in public.

His successor as prime minister, Mario Draghi, imposed a compulsory coronavirus health pass in September 2021 tied to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Conte’s early decisions during the breakout, including one not to impose “red zones” in two hard-hit areas, are the subject of an ongoing judicial inquiry.

Investigating magistrates suspect that Conte and his government underestimated the contagiousness of Covid-19 even though available data showed that cases were spreading rapidly.

SHOW COMMENTS