The women’s teams that won the last four Elite16 events of the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour will lead the way in the seventh top-level tournament of the season next week in Hamburg, Germany.

Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson and USA’s Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss occupy the top three spots in the entry list of the Hamburg Elite16, which will take place at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium from August 16-20.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

The reigning world champions, 25-year-old Brazilians Duda and Ana Patrícia made it to the podium in four of the six Elite16 events they played in 2023, taking gold in Ostrava and Gstaad, silver in Tepic and bronze in Uberlândia. The top-seeded duo in Germany, the two had to settle for fifth in Montréal, in the most recent Beach Pro Tour event they played at.

Canadians Melissa, 30, and Brandie, 31, will enter the Hamburg Elite16 seeded second after their victory in Montréal, which was their first as partners at the top level – they had also claimed the title of the Jurmala Challenge. In 2023, the Canadian Olympians also took bronze in Ostrava.

Seeded third, Kloth, 26, and Nuss, 25, took the title of the Uberlândia Elite16, in April. Besides that victory, the two also celebrated another title at the La Paz Challenge and a bronze medal at the Gstaad Elite 16.

Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Müller are the highest-seeded German duo, in fourth place. The bronze medalists of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship are still looking for their first medals on the Beach Pro Tour this season.

American Kelly Cheng, who won the Hamburg Elite16 in 2022 with former partner Betsi Flint, is seeded fifth with teammate Sara Hughes, right above the recently-crowned European champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland, who are sixth.

Seeded seventh, eighth and ninth are respectively Australia’s Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho, Brazil’s Carol Salgado/Bárbara Seixas and Brazil’s Ágatha Bednarczuk/Rebecca Cavalcanti.

Le ultime tre squadre garantite nel main draw dell'Elite16 di Amburgo sono le americane Sarah Sponcil e Terese Cannon, decime, le tedesche Sandra Ittlinger e Karla Borger, undicesime, e le thailandesi Taravadee Naraphornrapat e Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee, dodicesime.

Beach Pro Tour Montréal Elite16 – Women's Entry List

Anche le qualificazioni nella città tedesca saranno molto competitive, con le cinesi Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia, le olandesi Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam e le lettoni Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova ad occupare i primi tre posti.

Il sorteggio principale inizia giovedì, dopo la conclusione delle qualificazioni, e prevede quattro gironi da quattro squadre ciascuno. Le prime tre squadre di ogni pool parteciperanno ai turni eliminatori, che prevedono gli ottavi di finale e i quarti di finale, sabato. Le semifinali e le partite per le medaglie si disputeranno domenica.

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