Marta Menegatti

Marta Menegatti (born 16 August 1990) is an Italian beach volleyball player who plays as a left-side defender with her partner Viktoria Orsi Toth.

They became the first Italian women's team to advance to a semifinal on the World Tour since 2001, and the third overall in the tour's 18-year history.

They concluded their first year as teammates ranked No. 43 in the world.

In 2004, prior to her 14th birthday, Menegatti successfully tried out for the indoor volleyball club ASD Teodora Ravenna.

She thus moved to Ravenna and spent the next five years playing in the Serie B1 and B2, the third and fourth tier of the Italian volleyball league system respectively.

While in Ravenna, Menegatti's indoor club often trained on a local beach, prompting her foray into beach volleyball.

She began playing beach volleyball in the summer of 2005 or 2006, but did not take to it at first, partly because of the difficulty of playing on sand.

Menegatti took it as a personal challenge to get better on the beach; she said years later that the challenging aspect of beach volleyball was probably what won her over from indoor.

Soon after getting into the sport, she competed in her first beach tournament at the Trophy of the Regions (Trofeo delle Regioni), a national youth competition organised by the Italian Volleyball Federation (FIPAV).

She was selected to the junior national team after coming in second at the event.

Menegatti continued to play both beach and indoor volleyball over the next few years, entering beach tournaments during the summer indoor off-seasons.

Her transition to beach volleyball began six or seven years later and she made her international debut in 2006.

A decorated junior player, she medalled at four age-group World and European Championships with different partners.

Menegatti made her international debut on the Challenger and Satellite circuit in August 2006, where she and her partner Debora Pini placed ninth at the $10K Eboli Satellite tournament.

From 2006 to 2008, Menegatti was paired with various partners to represent Italy at the annual U20 European, U19 World and U21 World Championships.

She won her first international medal in the age-group category when she and Gilda Lombardo were runners-up at the 2007 edition of the U19 World Championships.

Menegatti debuted on the World Tour with Cicolari in 2009.

In the summer of 2009, at the age of 19, Menegatti was offered a spot on the Italian beach volleyball national team.

She quit indoor volleyball to focus solely on the beach game.

National team coach Lissandro Carvalho introduced her to Greta Cicolari, and the two began competing together on the Challenger and Satellite circuit, winning one silver and three bronze medals in 2009.

Menegatti and Cicolari debuted in their first FIVB World Tour event at the $190K Barcelona Open in September.

She is also the 2011 European champion and the 2013 Mediterranean Games champion, both achieved with Cicolari.

She is the 2011 FIVB Most Improved Player.

Born in Rovigo, Menegatti grew up in Ariano nel Polesine and hails from a sporting family.

Her father Maurizio was an amateur footballer, while her mother Cinzia was an indoor volleyball player in the Serie C, the fifth tier of the Italian volleyball league system.

Her younger brother Pietro is a footballer who has played as a goalkeeper for various Serie C and D clubs.

Her mother described her as a quiet and resolute child.

After trying out various sports including synchronised swimming and dance, Menegatti began playing indoor volleyball at the age of nine.

She first played for a youth team in Taglio di Po, then later for a team in Jolanda di Savoia where her mother coached.

With former teammate Greta Cicolari, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 4 in August 2012.

Her career highlights include two gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour.

Menegatti represented Italy at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing fifth (with Cicolari) and ninth (with Laura Giombini) respectively.

Born into a sporting family, Menegatti started playing indoor volleyball at the age of nine.

The pair entered the top ten of the world rankings by their third year and medalled at seven World Tour events before an acrimonious split midway through 2013.

They defeated Rebecca Moskowitz and Kristina May of Canada in three sets to qualify for the double-elimination main draw, eventually finishing 13th after losing to Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly of Brazil in the third round of the losers bracket.

One month later at the $190K Sanya Open, the pair came through the qualifiers and upset two of the top-three seeds on their way to the semifinals where they lost to Angie Akers and Tyra Turner of the United States.

Menegatti then teamed up with Orsi Toth and reached the podium five more times over the next three years, including her first World Tour title in 2015.

Following Orsi Toth's suspension right before the 2016 Olympics, Menegatti struggled with different partners.

Orsi Toth's return in the summer of 2018 brought about a return to form, with Menegatti climbing from a low of No. 81 back into the top 25 of the world rankings.

Menegatti has been noted as a complete player who can impact games on defense.