Elite16 - Cape Town, RSA - 2025

Duos from Europe, USA and Mozambique succeed in Cape Town Elite qualifications

Qualifiers from Austria, Czechia, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands and Norway make up the European contingent

Published 01:22, 22 Oct 2025

Webber /Wenhold (RSA) vs. Vanessa/Mucheza (MOZ) - Round 1 #68759395

Mozambique’s Vanessa Muianga & Mercia Mucheza in action at Cape Town Elite qualifiers

Mozambique’s Vanessa Muianga & Mercia Mucheza were the only team from outside Europe and the USA, who won their qualification match at the Cape Town Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and picked up one of the available main draw vacancies. In both genders combined, the remaining tickets from the qualifiers to the main draw pools went to teams from Austria (two), Czechia, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania (two), the Netherlands, Norway and USA (three).

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A single round of qualifications was played on Wednesday in South Africa. Vanessa & Mucheza, seeded fourth in the women’s qualifier bracket, produced an emphatic 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) sweep of their game against home representatives Natasha Louise Webber & Nicola Wenhold of South Africa. Vanessa led the way with 16 points, including two aces and one kill block.

Interestingly, all qualification matches were resolved in straight sets. In the longest lasting women’s match, Norway’s Nina Pavlova & Sunniva Helland-Hansen edged Japan’s Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami by 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) in 36 minutes. Pavlova contributed a match-high 22 points, including five kill blocks and an ace.

Meanwhile, the shortest match lasted only 18 minutes, which is how long it took Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite & Gerda Grudzinskaite, seeded second, to master a 2-0 (21-5, 21-3) victory over South Africa’s Luciana Pierangeli & Simone Sittig. Dumbauskaite managed to pile up as many as 12 aces towards her match-high tally of 20 points.

USA’s Carly Kan & Devanne Sours and Teegan Van Gunst & Piper Ferch, Lithuania’s Ieva Vasiliauskaite & Erika Kliokmanaite and Estonia’s Heleene Hollas & Liisa Remmelg were the other women’s duos that won their qualification matches on Wednesday and advanced to the main draw on Thursday, while bracket leaders Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands received a bye and qualified without having to play.

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The longest men’s qualification match lasted 37 minutes. In it, England’s Issa Batrane & Frederick Bialokoz, seeded ninth, celebrated a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) win over Czechia’s Jan Dumek & David Westphal, seeded eighth, and that was the only seeding upset on the men’s side. Bialokoz topped the match charts with 21 points, including four kill blocks. Batrane & Bialokoz will now join Pool A of the main draw, where they will challenge top-seeded Swedes Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson in their first match.

The shortest men’s qualification match also lasted just 18 minutes. It was enough time for second-seeded Austrians Alexander Horst & Moritz Pristauz to hammer out a 2-0 (21-3, 21-4) sweep of their encounter with Lesotho’s Moholo Lekomola & Toka Mosala with the help of eight serving aces. Pristauz added three kill blocks towards a match-high 18 points.

The other qualifying spots in the men’s main draw went to Austria’s Robin Seidl & Philipp Sponer, Germany’s Momme Lorenz & Tilo Rietschel, Czechia’s Tomas Semerad & Adam Miroslav Stocek, Hungary’s Artur Hajos & Bence Streli, USA’s Timothy Brewster & Ryan Ierna and France’s Elouan Chouikh-Barbez & Joadel Gardoque.