The biggest dream of all 19-year-old, up-and-coming beach volleyball players at the start of their international careers is to find a more established, veteran partner who can guide them through the process and significantly improve their position in terms of ranking points.

In both these aspects and in many more, it’s fair to say that Valentina Gottardi has hit the jackpot by partnering with Marta Menegatti for the 2022 season of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.

• All matches of the opening event of the Beach Pro Tour will be available live and on demand on Volleyball TV.

The 31-year-old Menegatti is arguably the most successful female beach volleyball player in Italy, with one European title and three Olympic appearances under her belt. She’s been competing internationally since 2009 and has won a pair of World Tour gold medals to go with seven silver and seven bronze.

Menegatti was fresh from a 19th-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics with former partner Viktoria Orsi Toth when Gottardi first crossed her path.

“After Tokyo, the Italian Federation decided to start a new beach project for Paris and they asked me if I would be interested in playing with Valentina,” Menegatti told Volleyball World. “I thought that I was ready to share my experience and accepted to take on the challenge.”

Before fully committing to making a run together for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the two had the opportunity to share the court in two tournaments. Their first experience as a team worked out to perfection as Menegatti and Gottardi won the Italian Tour Finals in Caorle.

Even though they couldn’t win a set against some of the best teams on the planet a few weeks later at the 2021 FIVB World Tour Finals in Sardinia, Menegatti thought she had seen enough to have the confidence to move forward with her new team.

“Everything worked really well in the Italian Tour Finals despite the fact that we were only able to practice together a couple of times,” she explained. “I was impressed by her physicality but I also liked her attitude, her tenacity and her determination. She was a lot more confident on the court than I expected her to be and I think she has great potential.”

Even if Menegatti ‘s evaluation of her new partner proves to be 100% accurate, it’s likely their trajectory will have some ups and downs, especially in their first months as a team. As Gottardi has played in just two international tournaments in her young career, a fair amount of patience will be needed until she gets familiar with international competition and raises her game to that level.

Menegatti, who has grown used to competing among the best in the world for nearly 15 years, says she’s ready to support her promising partner and that she’s actually enjoying dealing with the novelty of having a much younger player by her side.

“I know it won't be easy,” the Italian reflected. “Like every new team, we are going to deal with struggles and painful experiences, but it’s part of the game. I hope I can help her stay always positive during moments of adversity and never let emotions take her out of the game. We just need to be patient and build our confidence as a team day by day. It’s been really fun being with Valentina. Her energy seems to be endless and we often make fun of it. She can warm up in like five minutes while I have my own longer routine as an older player.”

Starting well, the two think, will be important. And because of that, the Italians were among the first to arrive in Tlaxcala, Mexico, for the opening tournament of the Beach Pro Tour season, a Challenge event from March 16-20.

Although Menegatti and Gottardi won’t be on the court until next Wednesday’s qualifier, they are in Mexico since Tuesday so they can adapt and prepare for their first experience as full-time partners.

“We decided to arrive earlier because we weren’t able to train much outside during the European winter,” Menegatti added. “We also know Tlaxcala is about 7,000 feet above sea level and we wanted to make sure we’d have enough time to adapt. I’m so excited to see where this adventure will lead us. The most important thing right now is to focus on the process and, above all, enjoy every little victory along the way. I'm super positive and motivated about what's to come.”

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
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