Karla Borger is back on top of a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour podium for the first time since over a year ago, when she and her previous partner Sandra Ittlinger won the Xiamen Challenge as they were still racing for qualification to what would have been Borger’s third Olympic appearance. Now in a partnership with Hanna-Marie Schieder, the prominent German player claimed gold at the Cervia Futures in Italy. In Sunday’s final, they defeated Czechia’s Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova, while Slovenia’s Ziva Javornik & Tajda Lovsin earned bronze. Italy’s Tiziano Andreatta & Davide Benzi delighted the home crowd with gold in the men’s competition, while Germany’s Robin Sowa & Jonas Reinhardt and Denmark’s Mads Mollgaard & Nicolai Hovmann completed the podium.

36-year-old Karla Borger, who won the last ever edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals back in 2021 along with Julia Sude, and 24-year-old Hanna-Marie Schieder reached the Cervia final without dropping a single set in the four matches on the way. That impeccable run was crowned with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) sweep of their semifinal encounter with 10^th-seeded Hungarian qualifiers Stefania Kun & Lilla Villam. The second-seeded Germans lost their only set of the tournament in the gold medal showdown against the seventh-seeded 19-year Pavelkova twins, but managed to win by 2-1 (24-22, 15-21, 15-11) and claim gold, their first medal in three Beach Pro Tour appearances as duo so far.

Pavelkova & Pavelkova, who are two-time European age-group (U18 and U22) champions, secured their first ever Beach Pro Tour podium after a 2-1 (21-15, 25-27, 15-6) semifinal upset of third-seeded Slovenians Javornik & Lovsin. The Czech teens lost their first match in Cervia to Kun & Villam, but then went on a four-game winning streak to reach the final.

In the bronze medal match, Javornik & Lovsin battled it out for a 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 16-14) victory over the Hungarian pair and celebrated the team’s first Tour podium.

Tiziano Andreatta & Davide Benzi have now collected two medals out of two appearances on the Beach Pro Tour together. After the silver they earned last week in Valenicia, now they made it all the way to the top of the podium in Cervia and did so undefeated in five matches played. The top-seeded Italians mastered a 2-0 (21-15, 21-11) sweep of their semifinal against fourth-seeded Germans Momme Lorenz & Tilo Rietschel. After a nail-biting tie-breaker in the gold medal showdown, Andreatta & Benzi snatched a 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 17-15) victory over another German team, 11^th-seeded qualifiers Robin Sowa & Jonas Reinhardt.

Sowa & Reinhardt decorated the new pair’s Beach Pro Tour debut with silver, which they secured with a six-win run from the qualifications all the way to the final. Their streak peaked with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) sweep of the semifinal against Mads Mollgaard & Nicolai Hovmann.

The seventh-seeded Danes bounced back with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) win over Lorenz & Rietschel in the third-place game to pick up their second medal on the Tour.

28 women’s teams and 28 men’s teams representing 24 different federations took part in the Cervia Futures. The next Futures stop will take place this week in Madrid, Spain – a women’s tournament from May 15 to 18.

Cervia Futures: all results and standings

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
VBTV
Beach Volleyball World Facebook
Beach Volleyball World X
Beach Volleyball World Instagram
Beach Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter