Italians go after another home gold in Battipaglia
Futures in Europe
After taking gold on both genders at last week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Cervia, Italian teams will go after another home victory this weekend, this time playing in Battipaglia, from Thursday to Sunday.
The city located in the country’s Southwestern region, just south of Naples, is hosting a beach volleyball international event for the first time ever and is one of four Italian stops for Futures in Europe this season.
Hosts Italy have by far the most teams entered at this weekend’s event, which will be held at the beachfront Lido Spineta, with six duos in each gender. Among them are the winners of last week’s event, Gianluca Dal Corso/Marco Viscovich and Margherita Bianchin/Claudia Scampoli.
Dal Corso and Viscovish are the top-seeded duo on the men’s side and one of four Italian teams starting in the main draw, alongside second-seeded Davide Benzi/Carlo Bonifazi, fourth-seeded Tobia Marchetto/Jakob Windisch and wildcards Marco Ulisse/Matteo Belluci. On the other hand, Theo Hanni/Michael Burgmann and Lorenzo Monti/Marco Zoli will have to go through the qualifier in Battipaglia.
French Tom Altwies and Elouan Chouikh, who finished fourth at the season-opening Madrid Futures, Austrians Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger and Czechs Jakub Sepka and Jiri Sedlak are other European teams with a real shot at winning medals this week.
The men’s event in Battipaglia will feature 28 teams, 22 of which come from European countries – Italy (6), Czechia (3), Germany (3), Sweden (3), Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece and Switzerland. Two duos from Egypt and the Philippines and one from Brazil and the United States are also entered in the tournament.
Beach Pro Tour Battipaglia Futures
On the women’s side, Cervia Futures champions Bianchin and Scampoli will have a big challenge ahead as they will start the tournament in the qualifier alongside compatriots Alice Gradini and Federica Frasca. Italy will have four teams seeded directly in the man draw in Reka Orsi Toth/Giada Bianchi (third), Viktoria Orsi Toth/Valentina Cali (sixth), Maria Mancinelli/Aurora Mattavelli (11th) and Eleonora Sestini/Erika Ditta (12th).
European teams will face strong competition from duos from outside the continent as four of the five best-seeded tandems come from abroad – Egypt’s Marwa Abdelhady/Doaa Elghobashy are first, Australia’s Jasmine Flaming/Jana Milutinovic and Stefania Fejes/Georgia Johnson are second and fourth respectively and Paraguay’s Michelle Valiente/Giuliana Poletti are fifth.
Among the 28 women’s teams entered, 19 are Europeans – Italy (6), France (2), Germany (2), Poland (2), Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine. Completing the lineup are three duos from Australia, two from Paraguay and the United States and one from Egypt and the Philippines.
Both the men’s and the women’s events will start on Thursday with a 16-team qualifier from which four duos in each gender will advance. The main draw begins on Friday with 16 tandems and the first day will be reserved for pool play. The elimination rounds will take place on Saturday and the semifinals and medal matches on Sunday.
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 international ranking points.
