The Netherlands and Estonia top Pool F

The 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Finals have two more participants confirmed after the Netherlands and Estonia qualified on the men’s and women’s side, respectively, this weekend, in Heraklion, Greece.

The two nations triumphed in the Pool F of the Preliminary Phase, which was held at the Ammoudara Beach, in the Greek coastal city, between Saturday and Sunday, and will join hosts Portugal and Spain, the first country to qualify, in the Finals, which will take place in Espinho from July 17-20.

After entering this weekend’s event as the heavy favorites in Pool F, the Dutch men confirmed their presence in the Finals with a flawless campaign in Heraklion, which saw them beat rivals from Hungary, Luxembourg and Greece without dropping a single set.

CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup – Men’s Pool F

The first duels for the Dutch happened on Saturday, against Hungary, and had Leon Luini and Quinten Groenewold topping Boldizsár Borbély/Lukas Niemeier 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) and Matthew Immers/Ruben Penninga overcoming Bence Tari/Ákos Veress also in two sets (21-14, 21-19).

On Sunday, the Netherlands started the day against Luxembourg and continued to dominate, with Luini and Groenewold beating Félix Fellinger/Pierre Baustert 2-0 (21-8, 21-5) and Immers and Penninga following it up with a straight-set (21-14, 21-19) victory over Steve Weber/Colin Hilbert.

The decisive series was against hosts Greece, who were also undefeated with four victories, but the Dutch ignored their rivals’ homecourt advantage to get two more wins and book their tickets to Espinho – Luini and Groenewold stroke first, downing Antiol Kola/Evangelos Sideris 2-0 (21-9, 21-19), and Immers and Penninga completed the work with a sweep (21-15, 22-20) of Stavros Ntallas/Dimitrios Chatzinikolaou.

Estonia advance in the tie-breaker

The women’s Pool F tournament had more balance and was only decided in the tie-braker – Estonia and Poland both ended the event with seven points, but the Estonians moved forward thanks to their higher point ratio (1.25 to 1.20).

The two nations met on Saturday, in the opening duel of the event, and split wins, with Estonia celebrating Eva Liisa Kuivonen and Liisa-Lotta Jürgenson’s 2-0 (22-20, 21-10) victory over Marta Lodej/Julia Kielak and Poland responding with Natalia Okla and Julia Radelczuk upsetting Heleene Hollas/Liisa Remmelg also in two sets (21-14, 21-19).

CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup – Women’s Pool F

Poland returned to the sand later that day and took control of the pool after they won a pair of matches against Greece, with Lodej and Kielak sweeping (21-15, 21-9) Eleni Alexoglou/Myrto Paschalaki and Okla and Radelczuk continuing undefeated thanks to a straight-set (21-15, 21-14) victory over Elisavet Triantafillidi/Dimitra Manavi.

That forced Estonia to get a pair of comfortable wins over Greece to advance on Sunday, and that’s what they did, with Kuivonen and Jürgenson topping Alexoglou/Paschalaki 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) and Hollas and Remmelg completing their campaign with a two-set (21-14, 21-14) triumph over Triantafillidi/Manavi.

An exciting ‘country vs country’ competition introduced in 2022 which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis, the Beach Nations Cup will continue next week, with two men’s and two women’s pools held in Balıkesir, Türkiye.

Pool G will be held first, between Friday and Saturday, and will have Czechia, Norway, Romania and Serbia competing on the men’s side and Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany and Slovakia battling among the women. From Saturday to Sunday, Pool A matches will take place, reuniting men’s teams of Croatia, Estonia, France and Türkiye and women’s duos of Denmark, the Netherlands, Romania and Türkiye.