Swiss Olympians Anouk and Zoé Vergé-Dépré celebrated the first title of their young partnership on Sunday, when they were crowned as the champions of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event held in Alanya, Türkiye.

The sisters, who joined forces before the start of the 2025 season, stepped at the top of the podium at the Beach Sports Center facility at the end of the tournament on Sunday, having by their side second-placed Italians Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth and third-placed French Clémence Vieira and Aline Chamereau.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge replays on VBTV

The gold medal match in Alanya featured two teams that made it to the final without even dropping sets during the week. The level of play and the competitiveness were elevated until the final point, and the Swiss had a slim edge, winning 2-1 (21-15, 12-21, 15-13).

“They turned on in the second set, and we just had to keep being patient,” Zoé said about the gold medal match. “Matches go up and down all the time, so we could not lose our minds. We fought back in the third, and I’m happy about it.”

With their victory in Alanya, the 33-year-old Anouk, a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, and the 27-year-old Zoé, a Paris Olympian, completed a rare hat-trick on the Beach Pro Tour, winning different medals in different levels of the event in their last three tournaments.

Before playing in Türkiye this week, they took silver in a Futures event in Spiez and claimed bronze in an Elite tournament held in Ostrava, now having three medals won in just five events as partners.

“I’m super happy,” Anouk said. “It was such a hard fight. We’re exhausted, we gave it our all, and it feels amazing. The atmosphere got better and better every day, and the crowd was cheering all the time. It was a lot of fun to play here.”

The silver medal earned this week in Alanya was the first for Italians Gottardi and Orsi Toth, who first played together last November and had in Türkiye their sixth appearance on the same side of the net.

Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge – Results

Vieira and Chamereau win first Challenge medal

French Vieira and Chamereau made it to the podium in a Challenge event for the first time in Alanya, finishing third. The two, who started this week’s tournament in the qualifier, won three medals in Futures events in 2023, but had never made it past the quarterfinals at the Challenge level.

They won the bronze medal match in Türkiye by forfeit after Italian Giada Bianchi couldn’t continue to play alongside partner Claudia Scampoli after sustaining a knee injury during the second set.

The next Challenge event on the 2025 Beach Pro Tour calendar will be held in Warmia Mazury, Poland, from June 25-29.

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