Last week’s Cape Town Elite winners Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour climbed to number three in the men’s FIVB Beach Volleyball Ranking for the first time. Furthermore, for the first time, they are ranked higher than their compatriots, reigning Olympic Champions David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig, and stand as Sweden’s number one team. On the women’s side, Cape Town gold medalists Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann of Germany regained five positions and returned to a joint number four as the charts received their weekly updates on Monday.
Beach Pro Tour
Holting Nilsson & Andersson for the first time in top three of the world
Muller & Tillmann back up to number four
Published 03:18, 28 Oct 2025
Sweden’s Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson during the Cape Town final
20-year-old Holting Nilsson and 19-year-old Andersson earned 1,200 ranking points with their gold in South Africa, but got to keep just 600, after the 600 from their previous eighth best result were no longer counted. So, the rising Swedish stars improved to a new total of 7,320 points, with which they jumped over two other teams into number three in the World Ranking, their highest position in the chart ever. They are now only 20 points below the world’s number two Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands, and 840 points below World Ranking leaders Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway.
On the way up the chart, Holting Nilsson & Andersson overtook Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci, who net-gained only 160 points from their fifth-place finish in Cape Town for a new total of 7,080 points, as well as fellow Swedes Ahman & Hellvig, who are now in fifth place on 6,920, yielding the status of Sweden’s highest ranked pair to their younger compatriots.
The rest of the men’s top 10 remained unchanged, with Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan, Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso, Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak, Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner and Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots keeping their places from fifth to 10th, in that order.
Meanwhile, young Austrians Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger, who took silver in South Africa last week, also reached a new high for the team, ascending to number 14 in the World Ranking, eight positions up from the previous week and two spots up from their previous high, the 16th place they reached in August. The Austrians are right between the other two semifinalists in Cape Town – 13th-ranked Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol of Norway and 15th-ranked Remi Bassereau & Calvin Aye of France, who held a joint 17th place together last week.
Germany’s Muller & Tillmann, a former number one team in the world, topped the women’s podium in Cape Town and regained some ground, climbing from last week’s number nine to this week’s number four. They pocketed 740 new points towards a total of 6,880, which tied them with Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova, who finished fourth in South Africa and also moved up the chart by a spot, surpassing previous number four, USA’s Kristen Nuss & Taryn Brasher by 120 points.
The top three – Brazil’s Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes, who withdrew from the Cape Town Elite after the pool stage because of an injury, their compatriots Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti and USA’s Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft, who did not compete in South Africa – remained unchanged. Italy’s Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth and Switzerland’s Anouk Verge-Depre & Zoe Verge-Depre, who reached the quarterfinals in Cape Town, kept their seventh and 10th places, respectively, while Kelly Cheng & Molly Shaw and reigning Olympic champions Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) of Brazil, who did not take part in last week’s Elite event, dropped two spots each, to number eight and number nine.
Another former world’s number one, Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands, finished Cape Town runners-up and sky-rocketed to number 56, or 49 positions up from last week’s 105, also regaining some ground after a long absence due to Stam’s injury.
Cape Town bronze medalists Sandra Ittlinger & Anna-Lena Grune of Germany made it to a new team’s high 15th place, seven spots up from last week and four spots up from their previous high, 19th place.
