World champions Tina & Anastasija win home gold at Jurmala Futures

Reigning world champions Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova delighted the Latvian beach volleyball fans not only by participating in the Jurmala Futures on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, but also by snatching the women’s gold. An all-Latvian men’s final also pleased the crowd in Jurmala on Sunday, with Edgars Tocs & Gustavs Auzins outlasting Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics for the trophy. Denmark’s Clara Windeleff & Astrid Mellmolle and Estonia’s Eva Liisa Kuivonen & Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson earned women’s silver and bronze, respectively, while Ukraine’s Ivan Datsiuk & Oleksii Bublyk completed the men’s podium.

World champs and two-time Olympians Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova lived up to the expectations and marched through the tournament unbeaten in six matches played. It was not an easy run for them, however. The top seeds were pushed to tie-breaker resolutions a few times during the tournament, including their 2-1 (17-21, 21-12, 15-8) semifinal comeback against sixth-seeded Estonians Eva Liisa Kuivonen & Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson and the 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-9) comeback in the gold medal final against third-seeded Danes Clara Windeleff & Astrid Mellmolle. It was Tina & Anastasija’s third gold and overall 12^th medal on the Beach Pro Tour.

The Jurmala silver was the second medal in Windeleff & Mellmolle’s Beach Pro Tour collection, and it was better than the first one, a Madrid Futures bronze from earlier this year. The Danish pair did not lose a single set on the way to the final against the world champions. They crowned their run with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-11) shutout of fourth-seeded Marta Carro & Adriana Serrano of Spain in the semifinals.

Last year’s Jurmala runners-up Kuivonen & Jurgenson picked up their third Beach Pro Tour medal after a 2-0 (22-20, 21-16) sweep of the third-place game against Carro & Serrano.

In an all-Latvian men’s final, 37-year-old Tokyo 2020 Olympian Edgars Tocs and his 21-year-old teammate Gustavs Auzins, a two-time age-category world champion, seeded third in the Jurmala main draw bracket, achieved a 2-1 (21-15, 18-21, 15-12) victory over top-seeded Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics to celebrate their second Beach Pro Tour gold together, after also topping the podium at the Madrid Futures earlier this year. Tocs & Auzins won all six of their matches in the Baltic sand, dropping only two sets along the way. In the semifinals, they hammered out a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) shutout of ninth-seeded Serbians Marko Makaric & Djordje Klasnic.

Bedritis & Rinkevics also reached the final undefeated. In the other semifinals, the bracket leaders achieved a hard-fought 2-0 (21-17, 26-24) win over second-seeded Ukrainians Ivan Datsiuk & Oleksii Bublyk to secure their team’s sixth Beach Pro Tour medal.

Datsiuk & Bublyk made their second consecutive Beach Pro Tour podium, after winning the Krakow Futures last week, claiming their third Tour medal overall. In the third-place game, they put together a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win over Makaric & Klasnic.

28 women’s and 28 men’s duos from 23 different countries took part in the Jurmala Futures.

The next three Futures stops on the Beach Pro Tour will be held in Ios, Greece, in Geneva, Switzerland (women only), and in Karpacz, Poland (men only) from June 18 to 21.

Jurmala Futures: all results

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