For the first time since the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour was established, Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner played at a Futures event. Paying their respect to the organization of the Brno Futures on home sand in Czechia, the reigning world champions lived up to the expectations and won gold, but it wasn’t a smooth ride all the way through. Another Czech team, qualifiers Adam Waber & Matyas Jezek, pushed them to a tie-breaker in the final, while Sweden’s Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson, reigning European U22 champions, completed the men’s podium with bronze.

Another pair of Czech Paris 2024 Olympians, Barbora Hermannova & Marie-Sara Stochlova, played in the women’s tournament in Brno, claiming the bronze. In the final, Kylie Neuschaeferova & Marketa Svozilova, also of Czechia, defeated Brazil’s Juliana Simoes & Carol Goerl.

Top-seeded Perusic & Schweiner won all five of their matches on the way to the gold, but in two of them they had to resort to tie-breaker resolutions. In the quarterfinals, it was a narrow escape against fifth-seeded Markus Mol & Jo Gladsoy Sunde of Norway. After losing the first set, the world champs survived two overtime sets to celebrate a nail-biting 2-1 (14-21, 24-22, 17-15) comeback. In the semis, the Czech standouts cruised to a 2-0 (21-15, 21-13) sweep of sixth-seeded Javier Huerta & Alejandro Huerta of Spain, but in the final, they had to mount another comeback from a set down to overcome 15^th-seeded qualifiers Waber & Jezek in a 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-7) victory and collect their fourth gold and seventh overall medal on the Beach Pro Tour.

23-year-old Waber and 24-year-old Jezek entered the tournament as the seventh seed in the qualification bracket and went on an impeccable run of six straight-set wins, crowned by a 2-0 (21-17, 28-26) sweep of their semifinal against third-seeded Holting Nilsson & Andersson, to secure their first ever Beach Pro Tour podium and face their mighty compatriots in the gold medal showdown.

19-year-old Holting Nilsson and 18-year-old Andersson bounced back with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-11) win over the Huerta brothers in the third place match. The Brno bronze was the second Beach Pro Tour medal for the young Swedes, after they claimed a Rakvere Futures gold at their previous appearance last month.

22-year-old Neuschaeferova and 21-year-old Svozilova earned the women’s gold in Brno, their first ever medal on the Beach Pro Tour. The second-seeded Czech duo won their first three matches in tie-breaker sets on the way to the last four, but then they were emphatic for a 2-0 (21-12, 21-15) semifinal win over third-seeded compatriots Miroslava Dunarova & Daniela Mokra and a 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) championship victory over 15^th-seeded Brazilian qualifiers Juliana Simoes & Carol Goerl.

For either member of the South American duo, the Brno silver was the first Tour medal as well. Starting from the qualifiers, they had a long campaign of eight matches in Brno and lost only two of them, both to Neuschaeferova & Svozilova. In their semifinal, Juliana Simoes & Carol Goerl came back from a set down to stun top-seeded Hermannova & Stochlova with a 2-1 (13-21, 21-16, 16-14) upset.

After their perfect streak of three straight-set wins was interrupted in the semis, the Czech Olympians recovered with a 2-0 (21-10, 21-11) sweep of the bronze medal match against Dunarova & Mokra to add a fifth podium to their Beach Pro Tour collection.

28 men’s and 28 women’s teams representing a total of 25 different countries took part in the Brno Futures. Next week, from August 29 to September 1, there will be two Futures events – in Warsaw, Poland for men and in Corigliano Rossano, Italy for both genders.

Brno Futures: results and standings

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