Lausanne, Switzerland, July 29, 2019 - The fifth-straight week of international beach volleyball competition continues with three European stops highlighted by the $600,000 Vienna Major starting Tuesday in the Austrian capital.
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While the Vienna stop is the fifth of five-straight weeks of elite events that started in Germany with the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Hamburg, followed by stops in Switzerland, Portugal and Japan, the other FIVB tournaments this week will be held in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana and Malbork, Poland.
While Vienna and Ljubljana have staged previous double gender tournaments on the international beach volleyball circuit, Malbork is hosting it first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event, which will feature men's only competition.
The Vienna Major starts Tuesday with qualifying followed by the opening main draw rounds on Wednesday that lead into the weekend matches where the women's finals will be played on Saturday and the men's podium-placing contests on Sunday. In addition to the $40,000 first-place prizes, the Vienna gold medals winners will collect 1,200 Olympic qualifying points for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.
The schedules for the €10,000 Ljubljana and €5,000 Malbork Opens starts on Thursday with qualifying followed by the opening main draw rounds on Friday and end on Sunday with the medal matches. The winning teams in Ljubljana and Malbork will collect the €1,000 first-place prizes and claim 200 Tokyo 2020 Olympic points.
The 2018-2019 FIVB World Tour played its 34th and 35th men’s events and 37th women’s event this past week with the double-gender Tokyo Open in Japan and the men’s-only Pinarella di Cervia Open in Italy.
Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sorum won their season leading sixth FIVB World Tour gold medal of the 2018-2019 season and ninth overall together by defeating Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen of Germany in Tokyo in two sets.
Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa won the Tokyo Open women’s title by defeating Alix Klineman/April Ross of the United States in two sets for their fifth World Tour gold medal together. It was the ninth FIVB World Tour title for Agatha and the seventh for Duda.
Japan - Tokyo, July 24-28, $150,000, FIVB men's event No. 444
1. Anders Mol/Christian Sorum, Norway, $20,000
2. Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen, Germany, $16,000
3. Alexander Brouwer/ Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands, $10,000
4. Alison Cerutti/Alvaro Filho, Brazil, $8,000
Gold - Mol/Sorum def. Ehlers/Fluggen, 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) (38 minutes)
Bronze - Brouwer/Meeuwsen def. Alison/Alvaro, 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) (43)
Tokyo Open podium placers are (left to right) Nils Ehlers, Lars Fluggen, Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, Robert Meeuwsen and Alexander Brouwer
Japan - Tokyo, July 24-28, $150,000, FIVB men's event No. 412
1. Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa, Brazil, $20,000
2. Alix Klineman/April Ross, United States, $16,000
3. Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson, Canada, $10,000
4. Karla Borger/Julia Sude, Germany, $8,000
Gold - Agatha/Duda def. Klineman/Ross, 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) (42)
Bronze - Bansley/Wilkerson def. Broger/Sude, 2-0 (21-19, 21-11) (39)
The Tokyo Open women's podium features (left to right) April Ross, Alix Klineman, Agatha Bednarczuk, Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa, Brandie Wilkerson and Heather Bansley
In Pinarella di Cervia, Russia’s Maksim Hudyakov/Igor Velichko each won their third FIVB World Tour gold medal defeating Florian Ertl/Johannes Kratz of Austria in the finals.
Italy, Pinarella di Cervia, July 25-28, €5,000, FIVB men's event No. 444
1. Maksim Hudyakov/Igor Velichko, Russia, €1,000
2. Florian Ertl/Johannes Kratz, Austria, €700
3. Maxim Sivolap/Artem Yarzutkin, Russia, €500
4. Grant Goldschmidt/Leo Williams, South Africa, €400
Gold - Hudyakov/Velichko def. Ertl/Johannes, 2-1 (22-20, 15-21, 15-12) (47)
Bronze - Sivolap/Yarzutkin def. Goldschmidt/Williams, 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) (31)
The Pinarella de Cervia podium with Austrians and Russians
Following this week's action in Austria, Poland and Slovenia, three double-gender events will be held in Liechtenstein (Vaduz, August 7-11), Hungary (Budapest, August 8-11) and Brazil (Miguel Pereira, August 8-11).