Ludwig and Lippmann take silver at Saquarema Challenge

European beach volleyball teams are set to return home from two weeks of Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour competition in Brazil with a silver and a bronze medal, earned at this week’s Challenge tournament held in Saquarema.

The performances in Brazil elevated the European medal count in Elite16 and Challenge tournaments in the 2024 season to eight – teams from the continent won three medals at both the Doha Elite16 and the Recife Challenge.

Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann were the most successful European team in Saquarema, finishing second in the tournament held at the Campo de Aviação and earning their first medal as partners on the Beach Pro Tour – they took bronze at last year’s EuroBeachVolley.

Ludwig and Lippmann won five straight duels in Saquarema on their way to the gold medal match and even prevailed in the first set of the final, but couldn’t handle Chinese Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia, who came back to win 2-1 (23-25, 24-22, 15-11) and take the title.

After the Germans, three European duos were eliminated in the quarterfinals, ranking fifth – Spain’s Daniela Álvarez/Tania Moreno and Liliana Fernández/Paula Soria and Switzerland’s Joana Mäder/Anouk Vergé-Dépré.

The men’s event had an all-European bronze medal match, which saw French Julien Lyneel and Remi Bassereau earn the right to stand at the podium with a 2-1 (21-15, 16-21, 15-12) win over Austrians Martin Ermacora and Philipp Waller – Brazilians Andre Loyola and George Wanderley took gold.

The tournament in Brazil was a memorable one for both teams as while Lyneel and Bassereau got to celebrate their first Beach Pro Tour medal after 15 events the Austrians made their first semifinal appearance after starting the event on Thursday’s qualifier.

Austria’s Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst and Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrián Gavira finished fifth in Brazil.

The next Challenge tournament of the 2024 Beach Pro Tour season will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, from April 11-14.