Austrians at full force this week in Baden
Futures in Europe
After two weeks, European beach volleyball teams are ready to compete in Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures tournaments in the continent again and the Austrian city of Baden will host one of the two events of the week.
Set to begin on Wednesday with the women’s qualifier, the five-day tournament will be held at the Weilburgpark Baden and will count on 56 teams from 23 countries and the host nation is determined to take the title on both genders.
Austria will have not only more teams than any country in the tournament with 11 (six men’s, five women’s), but are also brining all of their top players to the court this week in Baden as 12 of 18 athletes that recently represented the country at the 2023 A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley in Vienna will be on the sand this week in Baden.
The three highest-seeded teams in the men’s tournament are all from the host country. Seeded first are the legendary Alexander Horst, a three-time Olympian and World Championship silver medalist who took the title in Baden last year, and his temporary partner Timo Hammarberg, who recently took silver at the U20 EuroBeachVolley. The 19-year-old Hammarberg will replace Horst’s regular teammate Julian Hörl, who’s set to become a father and will sit out of the event.
Right below the two in the entry list are Martin Ermacora/Philipp Waller and Mathias Seiser/Laurenc Grössig. Horst’s longtime partner Clemens Doppler will also make an appearance at the event, competing internationally for the first time in the season alongside partner Thomas Kunert – the two are seeded tenth in the main draw.
The other eight teams guaranteed in the main draw in Baden are Israel’s Eylon Elazar/Netanel Ohana, Finland’s Santeri Siren/Jyrki Nurminen and Pekka Pippo/Vili Topio, Germany’s Jonas Sagstetter/Benedikt Sagstetter and Maximilian Just/Lui Wüst, USA’s Hagen Smith/Logan Webber, Denmark’s Mads Møllgaard/Nicolai Hovmann and Hungary’s Artúr Hajós/Bence Stréli.
Austria will have two more teams in action in the qualifier, on Thursday – top-seeded Maximilian Trimmer and Christoph Dressler and second-seeded Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz.
On the women’s side, the Klinger sisters Ronja and Dorina will carry the main hopes of an Austrian victory in Baden. The two are in great form, having taken the title of the Warsaw Futures just two ago, and are the top-seeded duo in the tournament.
Two other Austrian duos will start the Baden Futures directly in the main draw – sixth-seeded Katharina Schützenhöfer and Franziska Friedl and 12th-seeded Magdalena Rabitsch and Anja Trailovic.
The other nine duos that will only get on the court on Thursday in the women’s event at Switzerland’s Menia Bentele/Anna Lutz and Leona Kernen/Annique Niederhauser, Germany’s Melanie Paul/Hanna-Marie Schneider, Paraguay’s Laura Ovelar/Giuliana Poletti, Spain’s Sofía González/Sol Guidarelli, Czechia’s Anna Pavelková/Katerina Pavelková, Portugal’s Ines Castro/Beatriz Pinheiro, Slovenia’s Živa Javornik/Maja Marolt and Lithuania’s Irina Zobnina/Daniele Kvedaraite.
The Austrian representation in the main draw could increase if Karin Elsner/Jennifer Pfau and Tatjana Puškina/Blanca Schroll overcome the qualifier on Wednesday.
The Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe are run by the CEV in close cooperation with Volleyball World and provide teams from the continent with several opportunities to compete and gain valuable ranking points during the Olympic qualification period for the Paris 2024 Games.