Beach Pro Tour - News

Tanja Huberli serving at centre court in Ostrava

Tanja Huberli serving at centre court in Ostrava

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking leaders in both genders, Brazil’s Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos and Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum, topped the podiums at last week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Ostrava and consolidated their number one positions, standing on 9,300 and 9,600 points, respectively. Numbers two and three also kept their positions in the charts, but there is a new number four for both women and men - Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli and Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner, respectively.

Switzerland’s Brunner & Huberli had dropped to number seven after the previous week’s update, but picking up 900 points with their fourth place in Ostrava, they climbed back up to number four on a new total of 6,710, or 170 points below third-ranked Brazilians Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg and just 10 points above fifth-ranked Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss of the United States.

Kloth & Nuss kept their position after reaching the quarterfinals in Ostrava, but another two American pairs from the top 10 of the World Ranking climbed up the ladder after their results in Czechia. Silver medallists Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil collected 1,100 points for their second place, but after the 600 they had gained a year ago at the Jurmala Elite16 dropped out of the accounts, they pocketed only 500, enough to overtake Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina and move up a spot to number seven with 6,280 points. Just 60 points below them, in position eight, are Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng, who left Ostrava with a fifth-place finish, claiming 760 points and shifting two spots up the chart.

Ostrava bronze medallists Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, for whom it was only the third Beach Pro Tour appearance as a team, kept all of the 1,000 points that came with the third place and jumped 37 positions up from 93rd to 56th.

After losing their points from Ostrava 2022 last week, Czechia’s Perusic & Schweiner had dropped to number 10 in the ranking, but with the fourth place this year, they netted 864 of the 900 points they collected and leapt back up to number four on a total of 6,720 points, just 10 short of third-ranked Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen.

Ostrava runners-up Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan of Qatar stayed as number six in the World Ranking after gaining as many points last week (1,100) as they lost by dropping Jurmala 2022 out of consideration.

United States’ Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh kept the entire amount of 1,000 points that they earned along with the bronze medal in Ostrava and gained 13 positions in the ranking to number 27 on a total of 4,140 points.

Italy’s Adrian Carambula & Alex Ranghieri also continued their rise up the rankings, this time jumping as many as 10 positions from number 25 to number 15, the highest they have been since reuniting as a pair towards the end of last season. Their fifth-place result in Ostrava brought them 760 points, which pushed their total to 4,980.

The previous number 15, France’s Youssef Krou & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, who also finished their Ostrava campaign at the quarterfinals, ascended two positions to number 13.