The women’s qualifications at the Haikou Challenge on the 2024 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour were spread over two days, with the first round taking place on Wednesday, and the second – on Thursday morning. Eight teams emerged successful to complete the main draw line-up and resume action on Thursday afternoon.
Beach Pro Tour
French Olympians back on Tour, qualify for Haikou main draw
Haikou Challenge women’s main draw line-up now complete
Published 05:01, 14 Nov 2024
- Watch the Haikou Challenge on VBTV.
France’s top team, Paris 2024 Olympians Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard, were one of the pairs that pushed their way through the qualifier grind and made it among the last 24 in Haikou. It was the first time they returned to the Beach Pro Tour after representing their country at the home Olympics. Seeded eighth in the 29-team qualification bracket, they started off with a 2-0 (21-10, 22-20) win over Poland’s Maja Kruczek & Natalia Okla. Richard led the way with three aces, four kill blocks and 13 spike kills towards a match-high total of 20 points.
Their deciding second-round match against bracket neighbours Janne Uhl & Paula Schurholz of Germany, seeded ninth, was pushed to three sets, but the French pair persevered for a 2-1 (21-16, 16-21, 15-11) victory. While Placette was on fire from the serving line, putting away five aces, Richard once again topped the overall chart with 21 points, including two aces and five blocks.
Placette & Richard were seeded 21st in the main draw and will start in Pool D against fourth-seeded New Zealanders Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald on Thursday afternoon at 14:30 local time (06:30 UTC).
The three highest seeded teams in the qualification bracket received byes in the first round and, in the second, they lived up to their status and won their matches to advance. Top-seeded Stefanie Fejes & Jana Milutinovic of Australia managed a hard-fought 2-1 (21-19, 13-21, 15-10) victory over Japan’s Ren Matsumoto & Non Matsumoto. Second-seeded Aleksandra Wachowicz & Julia Radelczuk of Poland squeezed out a tight 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) win over China’s Yuan Lvwen & Zhu Lingdi, while third-seeded Belen Carro & Sofia Gonzalez of Spain mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) shutout of Austria’s Franziska Friedl & Lia Berger.
12th-seeded Cao Shuting & Zhang Xinchen had the roughest road to the main draw. They were the only team that had to win two tie-breakers to progress. On Wednesday, they achieved a 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-10) comeback against Poland’s Marta Lodej & Julia Kielak, and on Thursday, the home pair did it again, against fifth-seeded Australians Tara Phillips & Kayla Mears, 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 17-15).
The remaining three main draw vacancies for qualifiers went to seventh-seeded Molly Shaw & Toni Rodriguez of the United States, 11th-seeded Daniele Kvedaraite & Jekaterina Kovalskaja of Lithuania and 13th-seeded Alaina Chacon of Molly Phillips of USA.
Haikou Challenge women’s main draw will get underway on Thursday afternoon at 13:30 local time (05:30 UTC).
