Just days before the start of the first high-level event on the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, two German teams emerged on top of both the men’s and the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings. Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler and Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann are set to storm the high season from pole positions as both of these duos stand as the world’s number one teams in their genders for the first time in their careers. The main reason for the change of guard on top of the charts was the expiration of the Doha Elite16 points from March 2024.
Beach Pro Tour
German duos on top of the world ahead of Beach Pro Tour high season
Ehlers & Wickler and Muller & Tillmann lead the World Rankings for the first time
Published 08:38, 18 Mar 2025
Clemens Wickler in action at the Doha Finals in December
The previous number one team in the men’s World Ranking, reigning Olympic champions David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig, lost the full 1,100 points that came with their Doha Elite16 silver over a year ago and went down to a new total of 6,560 points that cost them the first place. Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum also had to give up their second place in the World Ranking and even fell to fourth after losing the 1,000 points from their bronze in Qatar and dropped to a new total of 6,400 points.
Meanwhile, Ehlers & Wickler, who spent most of the off-season as the number three team in the world, also had their 900 Doha points expire, but since they had more than eight eligible tournaments on their record, these points were partially replaced by the 600 points they collected at the Hamburg Elite16 in August. So suffering only 300 points worth of damages, the German silver medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympics jumped up to the top of the chart on a total of 6,680 points, or 120 points clear of Ahman & Hellvig, enjoying the world’s number one spot for the first time along their beach volleyball journey together.
Doha winners Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands also had some of the lost points restored with those from less prolific tournaments, but still suffered a drop of three positions, from number four to number seven on 5,860. Brazil’s George Wanderley & Andre Stein stayed on 6,520 points and climbed two spots to number three. Meanwhile, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan and Italy’s Samuele Cottafava & Paolo Nicolai both lost their positions in the top 10, where they were replaced by Spain’s Pablo Herrera & Adrian Gavira and USA’s Miles Evans & Chase Budinger, sharing eighth place. The top 10 is completed by Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde & Matthew Immers in fifth, Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano in sixth and Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo in 10th place.
Some of these pairs, like Evans & Budinger and Diaz & Alayo, will return to Beach Pro Tour action as soon as this week at the Yucatan Challenge in Mexico.
Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas spent their last week together as the world’s number one women’s team as they will no longer compete as a duo. Their gradual drop out of the World Ranking began with the expiration of the 1,200 points they earned with their 2024 Doha Elite16 gold. That already caused them a fall to number seven in the chart, still holding on to 5,380 points from another seven eligible tournaments.
For the first time ever, Germany’s Muller & Tillmann emerged on top of the World Ranking. They did not play in Doha, so they had no points to expire. Staying on a 6,440 total, they are now the world’s number one team, 320 points above second-placed Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia, who suffered a net loss of 300 points after the expiration of their 900 from the fourth place in Qatar.
The other movements within the women’s top 10 mostly involve duos that will not be competing together this season, which sets the stage for more drastic changes in the chart as the upcoming Challenge and Elite tournaments start unfolding.
Among those still going forward as partners, Netherlands’ Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon kept their fourth place in the World Ranking on a new total of 5,720 points, and Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte kept their 10th place on 5,180. Muller & Tillmann and Stam & Schoon are set to open their 2025 Beach Pro Tour campaigns at the Quintana Roo Elite in Mexico next week, while Paulikiene & Raupelyte are ready to hit the Mexican sand at the Yucatan Challenge this week.
