Men ready to end the season in Mallorca
Futures in Europe
With teams from all five continents represented, the calendar of Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe is set to be completed this week, with the Spanish city of Mallorca hosting a men’s tournament from Wednesday to Sunday – the women played last week.
The 17th and final stop of a series of events that took place in Europe over the last five months, the Mallorca Futures will feature 28 men’s teams from 20 countries in action at the Hotel & Sport Center Na Taconera from Wednesday to Sunday.
European teams make for the bulk of the entries, accounting for 23 of the 28 participants, but nations from Africa (Algeria), Asia (Hong Kong), North America (Canada and USA) and South America (Brazil) will also take part in the event.
Among the European countries entered, hosts Spain and Germany lead the way with four teams each, followed by Austria and Latvia with two – Czechia, England, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Türkiye have one duo each.
Beach Pro Tour Mallorca Futures
The Spanish Huerta brothers Alejandro and Javier lead the 12 teams guaranteed in the main draw, seeded first. The two triumphed at the season-opening Madrid Futures, held in May, and will try to end the season with another victory in front of their home fans.
Latvian veterans Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins, who have been playing together since 2013 and have announced their decision to split at the end of the year, will be with different partners this week in Mallorca. While the three-time Olympian Samoilovs is entered with his younger brother Mihails and seeded second, London Olympic bronze medalist Smedins is paired with Gustavs Auzins and seeded fourth.
Between the two Latvian teams, in third place, are Austrians Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger. Last year’s U20 European champions, the two made their EuroBeachVolley debuts this year, ranking 25th, and took fourth in a Futures event held in Helsinki, in June.
Also starting the Mallorca Futures directly in the main draw will be Germany’s Jonas Sagstetter/Benedikt Sagstetter and Bennet Poniewaz/Simon Kulzer, Türkiye’s Hasan Mermer/Safa Urlu, Austria’s Felix Friedl/Alexander Huber, Lithuania’s Arnas Rumsevicius/Tomas Stasevicius and Spain’s Daniel Moreno/Roberto Sanfélix, José Aba/Nathan Matos and Jorge Pascual/Blai Vilanova.
The event begins on Wednesday with a 16-team qualifier, from where four will advance to the main draw. After three days of pool play and the elimination rounds, the medal matches will be held in Mallorca 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 ranking points during the Olympic qualification period for the Paris 2024 Games.