The plans of the tournament organizers were somewhat dampened by the rainy sky over Palanga. Because of it, some matches were moved to indoor seaside courts, but not a single match needed to be shortened or canceled.
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To the tournament – with ATP experience
One of the highlights of the tournament was the final of the “Masters” division, where professional tennis players could also compete, in which Dominykas Stonkus and Andrius Morkevičius defeated Aurimas Karpavičius and Mindaugas Zilionis 6:2 3:6 10:4.
The champion from Palanga, D. Stonkus, just a few months ago, together with his good friend, Lithuania’s second-ranked player Eduardas Butvilas, participated in an ATP Challenger series tournament in Alicante. In the first round, the Lithuanians caused an upset by defeating New Zealand representatives Finn Reynolds and James Watt, who are among the top 100 doubles players in the world.
The tennis player admits that amateur and professional tournaments are completely different worlds, requiring very different approaches.
“Playing with amateurs is not easier than in professional tournaments – tennis is just completely different here. Every other point the ball speed and pace are different because you play one point with an amateur and the next with a professional. The pace of the game constantly changes, you have to take more initiative, and every match requires adaptation. And that is not easy,” said D. Stonkus.
He also praised the organizers of the “Profitus Cup.” “The tournament itself is really fun – evenly matched pairs, practically all matches were very close. The tournament atmosphere is very cozy, the organizers really made an effort to ensure everything ran smoothly.”
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For the first time together – both tennis and padel
The “Profitus Cup” has been one of the biggest summer tennis tournaments in Lithuania for several years. This year, the event expanded even further. For the first time, alongside the traditional tennis competitions, the “Padelio League” also organized a padel tournament.
60 padel enthusiasts played a total of 45 matches. The winners of the strongest division were Markas Kriaučiūnas and Karolis Toleikis, who defeated Ligita Rėbža and Edgaras Tautvydas 6:4 6:4 in the final.
Amateur tennis is changed not only by the community but also by technology
The platform “Tennis Homes,” which unites more than 9,000 members, is today the largest organizer of amateur tennis tournaments in Lithuania. Besides organizing tournaments, it also develops technological solutions that help to more objectively assess players’ abilities.
“Using artificial intelligence and data from more than 130,000 matches on our platform, we created a player level determination algorithm that allows predicting match outcomes. I am pleased to say that, for example, in two divisions of this year’s ‘Profitus Cup,’ the algorithm made only one incorrect prediction per division,” says V. Bartulis.
The “Profitus Cup” is part of the second “Tennis Homes” summer tournament cycle. In June, tennis players competed at the Birštonas courts.
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