The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gets to Türkiye, the fifth country to host high-caliber events in 2025, this week, and the Challenge tournament set to take place at the Beach Sports Center facility, in the city of Alanya, will have a very strong field of contenders.

The third city to host a Challenge event in 2025, after Mexico’s Yucatán, in March, and China’s Xiamen, in May, Alanya will welcome as many as 105 teams, including some of the best in the world, for five days of action on the Turkish southern coast.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge live on VBTV

Reigning world champions Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner of Czechia will test themselves in a Challenge event for the second time in 2025 this week in Alanya. The two were very successful in their first attempt, taking gold in Yucatán, and are coming from a third-place finish at the Ostrava Elite, two weeks ago.

Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge – Men’s Entry List

In Alanya, the Czech stars will face strong competition from Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, the silver medalists of last year’s Paris Olympics. The two are yet to find their game in 2025, having lost all four Beach Pro Tour matches they played, but hope to start turning things around this week in Türkiye.

Besides Czechs and Germans, the list of Olympians entered in the Alanya Challenge men's main draw has nine other names – Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher and Thomas Hodges/Zachery Schubert, France’s Rémi Bassereau (playing with Calvin Aye), Austria’s Alexander Horst (playing with Paul Pascariuc) and Julian Hörl (playing with Moritz Pristauz), Canada’s Sam Schachter (playing with Jonathan Pickett) and Italy’s Samuele Cottafava (playing with Gianluca Dal Corso).

On the women’s side, the main draw field is highlighted by a pair of Swiss Olympic medalists. A new team in 2025, the Vergé-Dépré sisters Anouk, who won bronze at the Tokyo Games in 2021, and Zoé are the top-seeded duo in the event and are fresh from taking bronze at the Ostrava Elite.

Entering the main draw in second place are Tanja Hüberli, a bronze medalist at last year’s Paris Games, and new partner Leona Kernen. The two took silver in Yucatán in their first tournament together and recently won a Futures event in Spiez, beating the Vergé-Dépré sisters in the final.

Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge – Women’s Entry List

Australian Taliqua Clancy, a silver medalist in Tokyo, is also entered in the main draw in Alanya, playing with new partner Jana Milutinovic – they have a ninth in Yucatán as their best result in four tournaments as partners.

Other Olympians set to compete in the women's main draw in Alanya are Italy’s Valentina Gottardi (playing with Reka Orsi Toth), Spain’s Daniela Álvarez/Tania Moreno, Canada’s Heather Bansley/Sophia Bukovec, Paraguay’s Michelle Valiente/Giuliana Poletti, Czechia’s Marie-Sára Štochlová (playing with Marketa Svozilova), the Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon (playing with Mila Konink) and Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene/Aine Raupelyte.

The list of Olympians entered in the Turkish event continues all the way down to the qualifier, where France’s Arnaud Gauthier-Rat (playing with Téo Rotar), Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich (playing with Jonathan Jordan), USA’s Chase Budinger/Miles Evans, Italy’s Enrico Rossi (playing with Marco Viscovich) and Alex Ranghieri (playing with Manuel Alfieri), Brazil’s George Wanderley (playing with Saymon Barbosa), Austria’s Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl and Poland’s Piotr Kantor (playing with Filip Lejawa) will compete for the final eight spots in the main draw.

Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge – Match Schedule

Among the women, France’s Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard and Clémence Vieira/Aline Chamereau, Germany’s Louisa Lippmann (playing with Linda Bock) and Karla Borger (playing with Hanna-Marie Schieder) and Japan’s Miki Ishii (playing with Saki Maruyama) are the players with Olympic experience still looking to secure a spot in the main draw.

The event will begin on Wednesday, with the qualifiers, which will feature 32 teams on the men’s side and 25 among the women. The main draw will be held from Thursday to Sunday, when the medal matches will be played.

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