The 2019 World Tour Finals in Rome will gather the planet’s best beach volleyball teams on the men’s and women’s side. The US$ 600,000 event will take place at the Foro Italico sports complex from September 4-8, 2019. It is the same site where all previous five FIVB World Tour events in Rome took place.
In contrast to the previous editions of the World Tour Finals, the Rome event will be played in a regular 5-star event format with 32 teams featured in the main draw. The event will also be part of the Olympic qualification process towards Tokyo 2020 with the winner earning 600 points. Prior to Wednesday’s qualifiers, country quota matches will take place on Tuesday afternoon for Austrian, Brazilian, Italian and US teams. Main draw starts on September 5, quarterfinals and semifinals will be played on September 7 and the finals on September 8.
In the men’s competition, all top teams from Europe, the US and Brazil will be participating. Norwegian Vikings Anders Mol and Christian Sorum are the defending champions and probably the top favorites while Russian world champions Krasilnikov/ Stoyanovskiy have been struggling recently. 2017 champions Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena (USA) are seeded 7th, last weekend’s AVP Chicago winners Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb are seeded 17th. Jake Gibb after the Chicago final:
“We are looking forward to Rome now. The Rome event site feels like a gladiator pit.”
On the women’s side, top-seeds are Canadian world champions Humana-Paredes/ Pavan and America’s A-Team Alix Klineman/ April Ross who already battled it out in the Hamburg world champs and the AVP Manhattan Beach finals. After losing the aformentioned matches to Canada, the A-Team took revenge last weekend and defeated the world champions in the AVP Chicago Gold Series Championships. Following the two top teams are Aussies Artacho/Clancy and the strong Brazilian teams. In Tuesday’s US country quota playoff Flint/ Day will face Sweat/Walsh Jennings.
Find the full entry list on the FIVB event page.
It is for the first time that the Cook Islands in the South Pacific are organizing an official FIVB event. Local teams Rai-Arii Enoka/Atatoa Herman and Brendon Heath/Raitiavatea Herman are the first-ever teams from the Cook Islands to compete in an FIVB World Tour event.
In total 18 teams from nine countries are participating in the VolleyFest Cook Islands: four from Australia, three from Japan, two from Canada, United States, Tuvalu and Cook Islands and one team from Hong Kong, New Zealand and Norway each. For the US, Adam Roberts/ Travis Mewhirter and Earl Schultz/ Christopher Austin are competing.
The medal matches in this FIVB 1-star event will be played at beautiful Rarotonga island on January 17. You can find the full event schedule here.
After a 4-month break, the FIVB World Tour resumes with a 1-star event in Ljubljana (Slovenia). The double gender tournament is the fourth international event that the Slovenian capital has been hosting since August 2018. 12 teams per gender do directly go into the main draw while 4 additional teams come through the qualification. Main draw kicks off on Friday with the single-elimination rounds starting on Saturday and the medal matches being played on Sunday.
With 2017 world championship silver medalists Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst as well Huber A./Dressler, two Austrian teams are leading the field on the men’s side. Italian Alex Ranghieri, former partner of Adrian “Mr. Skyball” Carambula, and his partner Daniele Sablone will need to go through the qualification. In the women’s competition, Czech team Bonnerova/ Olivova are the top entries.
Due to the COVID-19 situation and associated travel restrictions, no ranking points will be allocated at the Ljubljana event. Strict health and hygiene guidelines will be put in place for all participants.
After the FIVB World Tour resumed in Slovenia recently, the next event is the 1-star in Baden (Austria). The event will take place from August 20-23. This year, the event will not be run at the iconic Strandbad but at Weilburgpark, an event location nearby. Baden is one of Austria’s most popular beach volleyball locations and has been hosting several prestigious international tournaments over the past decade. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only 200 people will be allowed in the audience. International participants need to provide a negative Covid-19 test that has been conducted within the last three days.
With many top events being cancelled this season, the Baden 1-star entry list features many international top teams. 2017 world championships silver medalists Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst will try to defend the men’s titles they won in the previous two editions. Top-seeds are Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson.
On the women’s side, a new champion will be crowned as local heroine Katharina Schützenhöfer is still recovering from an injury. Her partner Lena Plesiutschnig will play with Dorina Klinger. With Hamburg semifinalists Betschart/Hüberli (Switzerland), Czech beach girls Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova, Borger/Sude (Germany) and Menegatti/Orsi-Toth (Italy), the women’s entry list sounds more like the one of a 4-star, not a 1-star event.
The Baden 1-star will feature 16 teams per gender in the main draws. There are 12 auto entries and 4 teams coming from the qualifiers on Thursday. After a modified pool play on Friday, the 12-team single elimination phase starts on Saturday. Semifinals and medal matches will close the event on Sunday.
Livestreams covering all courts and the entire event will be available at beachvolleyball-baden.at.
