Futures - Balikesir, TUR - 2026

Balikesir Futures gold off to Ukraine and Italy without a single set lost

Duos from Spain, Netherlands and the host nation also make the podiums in Turkiye

Published 07:48, 29 Jun 2026

Ukraine’s Tetiana Lazarenko & Sofiia Kurnikova triumph in Balikesir (source: cev.eu)

Ukraine’s Tetiana Lazarenko & Sofiia Kurnikova and Italy’s Tobia Marchetto & Riccardo Iervolino lifted the trophies at the Balikesir Futures on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Belen Carro & Paula Soria of Spain and Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru of host nation Turkiye picked up the silver medals. Both bronze medals went to Dutch teams – Nigella Negenman & Floor Hogenhout and Sam van Der Loo & Mees Sengers.

The 2026 Balikesir Futures women’s podium (source: cev.eu)

22-year-old Tetiana Lazarenko, a reigning European champion and a 2021 U21 world champion, and her current 20-year-old teammate Sofiia Kurnikova triumphed on top of their second Beach Pro Tour podium as a duo, after the Sveti Vlas Futures earlier this month. They marched emphatically through the five matches they played in Balikesir, without dropping a single set along the way. The top-seeded Ukrainians hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-9) sweep of their semifinal against 10^th-seeded Czechs Justyna Frommova & Julie Honzovicova, and followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) victory in the gold medal showdown against third-seeded Spaniards Belen Carro & Paula Soria.

Paris 2024 Olympian Paula Soria and her current partner Belen Carro earned their seventh medal at world-level tournaments together. Previously, they collected one gold and two silvers on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and one gold and two silvers on the Beach Pro Tour. It was their third podium in four Tour appearances this season. They reached the Balikesir final undefeated and crowned that run with a 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 15-8) win over second-seeded Nigella Negenman & Floor Hogenhout of the Netherlands.

19-year-old Negenman and 20-year-old Hogenhout bounced back from their only loss in the tournament with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) shutout of Frommova & Honzovicova in the bronze medal playoff to celebrate their first Beach Pro Tour podium together.

The 2026 Balikesir Futures men’s podium (source: cev.eu)

15^th-seeded Tobia Marchetto & Riccardo Iervolino did not lose any sets in Balikesir either and triumphed on top of the men’s podium. That gold was Iervolino’s first-ever Beach Pro Tour medal. The Italians nailed a 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) semifinal victory over sixth-seeded Dmytro Kozii & Sviatoslav Nahornyi of Ukraine, and went on to disappoint the fans in Turkiye with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) sweep of the final against defending Balikesir Futures champions and top-seeded home favorites Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru.

Ozdemir & Kuru’s four-match winning streak on the way to the final was crowned with a tight 2-0 (21-19, 24-22) semifinal win over fourth-seeded Sam van Der Loo & Mees Sengers of the Netherlands, guaranteeing the Turkish duo their third Beach Pro Tour podium.

At their second Beach Pro Tour appearance as a pair, Van Der Loo & Mees Sengers picked up their second medal. After the gold earned at last week’s Ios Futures, the Dutch duo claimed bronze at the Balikesir Futures. In a hard-fought third-place playoff, they came back from a set down to beat Kozii & Nahornyi by 2-1 (19-21, 22-20, 15-13).