Yves Haussener & Julian Friedli, Quentin Metral & Jonathan Jordan and Mirco Gerson & Luc Fluckiger lined up on the all-Swiss men’s podium to the delight of the home crowd in Spiez where a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event ended on Sunday. Netherlands’ Brecht Piersma & Wies Bekhuis, Czechia’s Marketa Slukova & Karin Zolnercikova and Estonia’s Eva Liisa Kuivonen & Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson earned the medals in the women’s tournament that finished on Saturday.

25-year-old Yves Haussener & 17-year-old Julian Friedli lived up to their top seeding in the men’s main draw and claimed gold, their first-ever Beach Pro Tour medal since they teamed up earlier this season. In Sunday’s final, they faced the new team of Haussener’s previous partner Quentin Metral with Jonathan Jordan and mounted a hard-fought 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-10) comeback. For the Metral & Jordan duo, the Spiez silver was also the first Beach Pro Tour medal. As partners, Haussener & Metral collected two gold medals on the 2022 Beach Pro Tour and a Spiez Futures silver in 2023. Jordan had one Futures gold on the Tour, while Friedli never made it to the podium before.

Haussener & Friedli had a bumpy start in Spiez, with a tight three-set win over Swiss compatriots Mirco Gerson & Luc Fluckiger and a loss to France’s Joadel Genevieve-Gardoque & Keran Duval in pool play, but then picked up speed and cruised on to the final without losing a set in the next three matches. In the semifinals, they met Gerson & Fluckiger again and outclassed them in straight sets, 2-0 (21-18, 21-15).

Second-seeded Metral & Jordan followed a similar path – a win and a loss in their pool, followed by three straight-set wins on the way to the final. In the semifinals, they achieved a 2-0 (21-17, 21-12) victory over 10^th-seeded Serbian qualifiers Djordje Klasnic & Marko Makaric.

The tournament in Spiez marked the return of Tokyo 2020 Olympian Mirco Gerson from retirement. It was his first appearance at a major international event since the Games in the Japanese capital back in 2021. The 31-year-old defender decorated his Beach Pro Tour debut with bronze. It was the first Tour appearance for his new partner, 19-year-old Luc Fluckiger, as well. Entering the main draw with a wild card as the bottom seed in the bracket, they lost only two matches in the competition, both to champions-to-be Haussener & Friedli. In the bronze medal match, Gerson & Fluckiger mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) victory over Klasnic & Makaric.

Wies Bekhuis and 2023 U21 world champion Brecht Piersma celebrated their first gold and third overall podium on the Beach Pro Tour as a duo. 22-year-old Bekhuis and 21-year-old Piersma did so in an emphatic manner, without dropping a single set in five matches played in Spiez. In the semifinals, the third-seeded Dutch pair delivered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) upset of top-seeded Swiss duo Leona Kernen & Annique Niederhauser and followed up with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) sweep of the final against seventh-seeded Marketa Slukova & Karin Zolnercikova of Czechia.

35-year-old three-time Olympian Slukova achieved her first Beach Pro Tour medal. It was only the third Tour appearance for her and her 22-year-old partner Zolnercikova as a team. Zolnercikova, on the other hand, earned silver in Spiez last year as well, but with another partner. Their four-match winning streak on the way to the final was shaped up by a 2-1 (24-26, 21-15, 15-8) comeback in their semifinal against bottom-seeded qualifiers Eva Liisa Kuivonen & Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson.

21-year-old Estonians Kuivonen & Jurgenson entered the tournament as the 10^th seed in the qualification bracket and, after winning six of the eight matches played in Spiez, they snatched their first-ever Tour medal. The only losses they suffered were in their first main draw match, against top-seeded Kernen & Niederhauser, and in the semifinal. In the bronze medal game, however, they got back at Kernen & Niederhauser with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) sweep.

27 men’s and 27 women’s teams representing a total of 28 different countries from all five continental confederations took part in the Spiez Futures. The next Futures tournaments - a double-gender event in Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria and a men’s event in Krakow, Poland – will take place from 6 to 9 June.

Spiez Futures: results and standings

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