The French pairing of 19-year-old Saofe Duval and 22-year-old Anouk Dupin claimed their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold after emerging from the qualifications and topping the podium at last week’s Valencia Futures in Spain. Home favorites Belen Carro & Paula Soria and Ukraine’s Yeva Serdiuk & Daria Romaniuk earned women’s silver and bronze. Spanish brothers Alejandro Huerta & Javier Huerta delighted the home fans by winning the men’s trophy, while Italy’s Tiziano Andreatta & Davide Benzi and Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier finished first and second runners-up.
Duval & Dupin started the tournament as the sixth seed in the qualification bracket. Seven consecutive victories later, they stood triumphant on top of the Valencia podium. Seeded 13th in the 16-team main draw, the young French players came back from a set down against their seventh-seeded compatriots Elsa Descamps & Romane Sobezalz to produce a 2-1 (12-21, 21-18, 15-13) semifinal win, before battling it out for a nail-biting 2-1 (21-17, 15-21, 20-18) victory in the final against top-seeded Belen Carro & Paula Soria of Spain. The Valencia gold was the first Beach Pro Tour medal for Duval and the second for Dupin.
The silver was also Belen Carro’s first medal on the Tour, while Paris 2024 Olympian Paula Soria has already collected five. They finished the Valencia tournament on a 4-2 win-loss record. Their last victory was the 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) semifinal win over third-seeded Ukrainians Yeva Serdiuk & Daria Romaniuk. 21-year-old Serdiuk and 20-year-old Romaniuk, 2022 U19 world champions, reached the semifinals undefeated and, after the setback against the home team, they bounced back with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) sweep of the bronze medal match against Descamps & Sobezalz to claim their third Tour medal as a team, after the two Futures golds earned in September.
