Defending champions France and the Netherlands dominate Pool A

Counting on the presence of Olympians in their squads, France, on the men’s side, and the Netherlands, among the women, triumphed in Pool A of the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup and advanced to the Finals of the fourth edition of the event.

French and Dutch, who both won the Beach Nations Cup last year, dominated their pools in the Preliminary Phase of the tournament and emerged on top at Ören Beach, in Balıkesir, Türkiye, on Sunday, taking each one spot in the Finals, which are going to be held in Espinho, Portugal, from July 17-20.

Besides the host country, Spain, the Netherlands, Czechia and France are now qualified on the men’s side, and Spain, Estonia, Germany and the Netherlands among the women. The three remaining berths in each gender will be awarded in June, when the last pools will be played.

Counting on two of the four players that represented the country at the Paris Olympics last year, France dominated the men’s tournament in Balıkesir, winning two matches against each of Estonia, Croatia and hosts Türkiye without dropping sets.

CEV Beach Nations Cup – Men’s Pool A

The French campaign started against the Estonians on Saturday and had Paris 2024 Olympian Rémi Bassereau and new partner Calvin Aye topping Jaan Rebel/Kaur Kais 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, who also competed at the feet of the Eiffel Tower nine months ago, and Téo Rotar sweeping (21-15, 21-15) Mart Tiisaar/Dimitriy Korotkov.

The defending champions continued in great form on Sunday, getting a pair of wins over Croatia – Bassereau and Aye went first, downing Jurica Skorin/Hrvoje Zelenika 2-0 (21-19, 21-12), and then Gauthier-Rat/Rotar followed it up with a straight-set (21-7, 21-13) win over Tin Devald/Josip Pribanic.

Because the Turkish had dropped a match against Estonia earlier on Sunday, the French could win the pool even if they lost one of the two duels between the countries, but they didn’t slow down, with Bassereau and Aye defeating Yusuf Özdemir/Batuhan Kuru 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) and Gauthier-Rat/Rotar topping Sacit Kurt/Ahmet Tür also in two sets (21-13, 21-17).

Schoon leads the Netherlands to victory

In the women’s tournament, the Netherlands benefited from the presence of two-time Olympian Raisa Schoon, who temporarily joined forces with Mila Konink while her partner Katja Stam recovers from injury, to finish at the top of the standings in Pool A.

The temporary duo gave the Dutch their first victory in Balıkesir, beating Romania’s Andreea Corcoz/Ioana Hododi in two sets (21-18, 21-9) on Saturday. In the second match between the countries, Emi van Driel and Wies Bekhuis downed Beata Vaida/Francesca Alupei 2-1 (21-15, 14-21, 15-10).

The Dutch got two more victories on Saturday, these against Denmark, with Schoon and Konink overcoming Cirkeline Høg/Charlotte Kroyer in two sets (21-8, 21-13) and Van Driel and Bekhuis getting the better of Frida Lyø/Anna Hauge in the tie-breaker (14-21, 21-13, 15-10).

CEV Beach Nations Cup – Women’s Pool A

Since hosts Türkiye had lost one match in each of the previous series, the Dutch entered Sunday’s encounters in full control, but they continued in great rhythm to end their campaign with two more wins after Schoon and Konink topped Nursel Sencel/Merve Celebi in two sets (21-15, 21-16) and Van Driel and Bekhuis defeated Merve Nezir/Su Simdim 2-0 (21-19, 21-12).

The last three pools of the Beach Nations Cup, an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition introduced in 2022 which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis, will be held in June. The Italian city of Messina will host one of them from June 17-18, with the Latvian capital Riga following on June 20-21 and the Lithuanian capital Vilnius completing the schedule on June 21-22.