Cervia welcomes first Beach Pro Tour Futures double-gender in Europe

The second week of Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe will also bring the first double-gender tournament of the season, with the city of Cervia, in Italy, hosting men and women for four days of competition from Thursday to Sunday.

Having the popular Fantini Club as a venue, the city located in the Northeastern coast of Italy is set to welcome international beach volleyball for a third-straight season after having hosted a Beach Pro Tour Futures event last year and an FIVB World Tour one-star tournament in 2021.

The women’s tournament in Cervia will only feature European teams, with 13 nations from the continent accounting for the 28 duos entered in the event. Hosts Italy lead the way with six teams, followed by Lithuania and Switzerland, with three each, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Poland and Sweden, with two, and France, Latvia, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovakia and Türkiye, which will each have one duo in action.

Top-seeded Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi of Italy are the undisputed favorites this week. Currently occupying the ninth place in the FIVB World Rankings, the two have recently topped the podium in a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Saquarema, Brazil. They were fourth in Cervia last year.

The host country has two other duos in the top five of the Cervia entry list with Claudia Scampoli and Margherita Bianchin in second place and the Orsi Toth sisters Viktoria and Reka, who won bronze in the same event last year, ranked fourth.

Swiss Menia Bentele and Anna Lutz, who claimed silver last year in Cervia, are seeded third while Latvians Līva Ēbere and Deniela Konstantinova, who were second in last year’s U20 EuroBeachVolley, completing the top five.

The men’s event in Cervia will have international representation with two teams from China and one from Brazil and the Maldives taking part in the contest for medals. The European contingent will be extensive, though, with six teams from Italy, three from Germany, two from Austria, Czechia, Hungary and Poland and one from each of Belgium, Denmark, England, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway.

Italians Davide Benzi and Carlo Bonifazi are the top-seeded team in the event. The two have won silver medals in two Futures events in Italy last year, finishing second in Giardini Naxos and Cirò Marina, and will be looking for their first victory at home.

Poland have both of their teams in the top five, with Mikolaj Miszczuk and Mateus Florczyk ranked second and Piotr Janiak and Jedrzej Brozyniak appearing in fifth place. Second-seeded Mart van Werkhoven and Thijs Nijeboer of the Netherlands and fifth-seeded Ardis Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics of Latvia complete the list of the five best-ranked teams entering the event.

The tournament will begin on Thursday with qualifiers taking place on both genders – at the end of the day, four men’s teams and four women’s duos will advance to the main draw. The main phase of the event starts with modified pool play and the top three teams in each group move forward to the elimination rounds. The medal matches will be held at the Fantini Club on Sunday.

The Cervia Futures is one of 15 events run by the CEV in Europe in close cooperation with Volleyball World that 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.