Olympians get on the sand this week In Battipaglia
Futures in Europe
After three weeks, the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is back in Italy as the city of Battipaglia is set to become the second in the country to host a Futures event in 2025, following Cervia, which staged a tournament earlier in May.
The tournament set to take place from Thursday to Sunday at the beachfront Lido Spineta is going to feature some big names of the sport in Europe, with five Olympians from three different countries entered in the event.
They will all get on the court in the men’s tournament, and hosts Italy account for two of them, including 37-year-old blocker Alex Ranghieri, who represented the country at both the Rio 2016 and Paris 2024 Games. Following the retirement of his Olympic partner Adrian Carambula, Ranghieri picked up 27-year-old Manuel Alfieri to be his new teammate, and the two will play together for just the third time this week.
Enrico Rossi, a 31-year-old blocker who paired with Carambula at the Tokyo 2020 Games, is also entered in this week’s event. After having four different partners in 2024, he began the season with 23-year-old Marco Viscovich, and the two will share the court for just the second time in Battipaglia.
Another player with two Olympics under his belt, Polish blocker Piotr Kantor is also among the contenders this week. The 33-year-old blocker recently switched partners and will have 20-year-old Filip Lejawa by his side for just the second time in this week’s event.
Beach Pro Tour Battipaglia Futures – Men
Austrian representatives at the Rio 2016 Olympics, 35-year-old Robin Seidl and 39-year-old Alexander Huber will form the most experienced team in the event. The two reunited at the end of last year and made it to the semifinals of the Valencia Futures a few weeks ago.
The men’s tournament in Battipaglia will have 28 teams, coming from 14 different countries. Hosts Italy will have six duos, followed by Latvia with four, Poland with three, Austria, Germany, Lithuania and Switzerland with two and Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Greece, Norway, Serbia and the United States with one.
Rising stars on the women’s side
The field of the women’s tournament in Battipaglia will have a different profile, featuring many young players who have had success in youth tournaments at both the global and the continental levels.
Dutch Desy Poiesz, who won the 2023 U21 World Championship and took bronze at the 2022 U20 EuroBeachVolley, is one of them. The 22-year-old will have Lisa Luini by her side this week in Italy.
Latvians Līva Ēbere, 17, and Deniela Konstantinova, 19, also have a lot of success at the youth level to show for as they won four medals across the U18, U20 and U22 age groups of the EuroBeachVolley over the last three years.
Swiss Muriel Bossart, 19, has two continental titles already as she won the U18 EuroBeachVolley in 2021 and the U20 edition of the tournament last year. She enters the Italian event having Nadine Demierre as her partner.
Beach Pro Tour Battipaglia Futures – Women
Featuring 25 teams, the women’s field in Battipaglia will have 15 nations represented. Hosts Italy will have four teams, the Netherlands and Switzerland will send three, France, Latvia and the United States two and Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden one each.
The event will start on Thursday, with the qualifier, and will continue with the main draw pool play on Friday, the elimination rounds 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.