Beach Pro Tour makes final stop in Italy in Cirò Marina

Italian beach volleyball teams will try to have a third consecutive week of success in front of their home fans as the country hosts another Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures tournament this week, this time in Cirò Marina.

This week’s event, which will be held at the Luglio in Sport and will run from Thursday to Sunday, will be the third consecutive hosted by Italy, following tournaments in Giardini Naxos two weeks ago and Lecce last week.

Each of those events had one Italian duo at the top of the podium, as did the one played in Cervia back in May, and the possibility of continuing that successful run is what motivates the home teams for this week’s event.

The Italians seem more likely to find success this week in the men’s tournament as they have three of the five top-seeded teams, including two teams that took gold in Futures events this year – Davide Benzi/Carlo Bonifazi, who triumphed in Songkhla, Thailand, in April, and were second in Giardini Naxos, and Jacob Windisch/Gianluca Dal Corso, who topped the podium in Lecce on Sunday.

Ranked first and fourth in the entry rankings, the Italians have two Argentinean tandems between them in Julian Azaad/Maciel Bueno and Bautista Amieva/Leo Aveiro. The list of 12 teams guaranteed in the men’s main draw has four duos from Italy, two from Argentina and England and one from each of Chile, the Czech Republic, Spain and Norway.

The men’s event in Cirò Marina will feature teams from Argentina, Austria, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, England, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

On the women’s side, Argentineans Cecilia Peralta and Maia Najul, who took bronze last week in Lecce, are the top-seeded team, followed by Australians Alisha Stevens and Georgia Johnson, who were fourth in the same tournament.

Among the seven European teams guaranteed in the main draw, the ones to stand out the most are the ones of Italians Valentina Cali and Margherita Tega, who won bronze two weeks ago in Giardini Naxos, and Latvians Varvara Brailko and Anete Namike, who won the #EuroBeachVolleyU20 in 2020 and will play together for the first time in the Beach Pro Tour.

The women’s tournament in Cirò Marina will feature teams from Argentina, Australia (2), Bulgaria (2), Canada (2), Chile, the Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Italy (4), Latvia (2), Lebanon, Lithuania, the Netherlands (2), New Zealand, Spain, the United States (2) and Vanuatu.

The event starts on Thursday, with a 16-team qualifier that will determine the last participants of the main draw in each gender. The main phase of the tournaments begins on Friday and goes until Sunday, when the champions will be known.