The Hamburg Elite is a regular stop on the Beach Pro Tour and will take place for the fifth consecutive year. The German city has also hosted other major beach volleyball competitions, such as the 2019 FIVB World Championships, the 2017 and 2018 FIVB World Tour Finals, the 2016 Hamburg Major on the World Tour, and the 2008 CEV European Championships.
Ana Patricia & Duda triumphed as Hamburg Elite16 winners in 2023. Last year, they took the bronze. For Carol Horta, it will be the first time competing at a Hamburg Elite event. The newly formed Brazilian pairing is pre-seeded 12th in the 16-team women’s main draw bracket and will start their campaign in Pool D, along with Italy’s Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth and another newly formed team, that of Germany’s Sandra Ittlinger & Kim Van de Velde.
Sandra & Kim, who played together in 2024, have decided to reunite and join the race for LA 2028 together. Until now, while Kim was not competing on the Beach Pro Tour, Sandra played with Anna-Lena Grune and the two reached the top 10 of the FIVB World Ranking. Meanwhile, Grune has joined forces with 20-year-old Janne Uhl and the two will start their Hamburg participation from Wednesday’s qualifiers.
Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada will lead the women’s bracket in Hamburg. They will headline Pool A, also featuring the world’s number two team and last year’s Hamburg runners-up Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil, and Germany’s Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann, who reached the semifinals at each of the three most recent Hamburg tournaments, collecting bronze in 2023 and silver in 2024.
The world’s number one team – 2025 World Championship bronze medalists Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti – will enter the Hamburg main draw seeded second in the bracket. Aiming at their first Hamburg podium, the Brazilian duo will start in Pool B, in the company of Switzerland’s Leona Kernen & Joana Mader and USA’s Sara Hughes & Allysa Batenhorst.
Pool C will be headed by third-seeded reigning world champions Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia. Paris 2024 bronze medalists Tanja Huberli & Nina Brunner of Switzerland and Molly Shaw & Molly Phillips of the United States will be among their opponents in the pool.
Serving off at 09:00 local time (07:00 UTC) on August 5, two rounds of qualification matches will fill the four vacancies (one per pool) in the main draw, which is set to get underway on Thursday.
A single round robin will determine the final standings in each pool, with the top three teams advancing to the direct elimination rounds. The teams that finish third in the pools will take on the runners-up of other pools in the eighthfinals, the winners of which will move to the quarterfinal round, where they will challenge the four pool winners. Semifinals and medal matches will follow on the way to Sunday’s podium in Hamburg.
