Austrian teams claim top honours at second stop of national tour

Magdalena Rabitsch/Anja Trailovic and Philipp Waller/Jakob Reiter emerged as the women’s and men’s winners at the second stop of the win2day Beach Volleyball Tour PRO stop held in Graz this past weekend, which featured as many as 16 Austrian and international teams per gender.

The list of competitors included Ukraine’s Valentyna Davidova and Diana Lunina as well. However, after topping the charts at the previous stop of the tour held two weeks ago, the Ukrainians had to admit defeat in the semi-finals to the top seeded duo Eva Freiberger/Stephanie Wiesmeyr. The team from Ukraine eventually lost the bronze medal match as well to Czechs Miroslava Dunarova/Daniela Resova, and thus they left Graz empty-handed. In the grand finale, Rabitsch/Trailovic caused a surprise. The Carinthians, number four on the seed list, beat Freiberger/Wiesmeyr, who had not lost a single set until the final, 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-8).

The top star in Graz was Philipp Waller, who just a week ago finished fifth with his regular partner Robin Seidl at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenger event in Doha, Qatar. This time he started with Jakob Reiter, and the two fully lived up to their role as favourites. Without dropping a set, they stormed to victory in the tournament. The final was a duel between the two top seeded teams, which Waller/Reiter won against Florian Ertl/Johannes Kratz (21-19, 21-13). Laurenc Grössig/Timo Hammarberg took third place – thus reflecting the seeding as well. In the bronze medal match, the two won against Paul Pascariuc/Arwin Kopschar 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-11).

The win2day Beach Volleyball Tour PRO 2022 will continue in Freistadt in two weeks.