Italians looking for another home victory this week in Messina

After three weeks, the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is back in Italy, with the city of Messina set to host the sixth Futures tournament in Europe in 2023.

Located in the southern region of the country, Messina will host an international event for the first time and is set to become the fifth Italian city to welcome a Beach Pro Tour Futures event. The matches will be played at the Piazza Duomo Messina from Thursday to Sunday.

Margherita Bianchin and Claudia Scampoli, who won Beach Pro Tour Futures gold medals in two different Italian cities already (Giardini Naxos, in 2022, and Lecce, in 2023), will try to take the host country to the top of the podium in the women’s event this week. They’re the top-seeded duo among the women.

The two will, however, face strong competition in Messina as three of the four teams that made it to the semifinals of last week’s Ios Futures – second-placed Katharina Schützenhöfer/Franziska Friedl of Austria, third-placed Maia Najul/Cecilia Peralta of Argentina and fourth-placed Clara Windeleff/Sofia Bisgaard of Denmark – will all be back on the court.

Besides the top-seeded Bianchin and Scampoli, hosts Italy will have five other teams competing this weekend in the women’s tournament in Messina. Europe will also be represented by three teams from Poland, two from Belgium and Switzerland and one from each of Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Scotland and Slovakia.

The event will feature duos from 18 nations, with teams from all five continents making the trip to Italy. Besides the European nations, will also be represented Argentina, Australia, Canada (2), Chile, Japan and Mozambique.

The men’s event also has an Italian team as the top-seeded entering the Messina Futures in Davide Benzi and Carlo Bonifazi. As with Scampoli and Bianchin, the two will also be looking for their second victory in their home sand this season after triumphing at the Lecce Futures, earlier this month.

The main threats to the Italians come from Argentina, with third-seeded Bautista Amieva/Leo Aveiro and fourth-seeded Julian Azaad/Maciel Bueno positioned to challenge the home team this week in Messina.

Besides hosts Italy, who will have six teams in action, 13 other European nations will have duos getting on the court in Messina – Austria, Belgium, Czechia (2), Germany, Israel (2), Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway (2), Poland (3), Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Türkiye.

Coming from outside of the continent will be two duos from Argentina and one from each of Mozambique and New Zealand.

The tournament begins on Thursday, with 16 teams per gender competing in the qualifier. The best four men’s and women’s duos will move forward to the main draw, which will be held between Friday and Sunday, when the medal winners will be determined.

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.