Beach Volleyball World Championships Adelaide 2025

Underdogs Yan & Xia and Paul & Kunst top Pool L and advance to World Championship sixteenthfinals

Pairs from Austria, Brazil, China, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and USA are the next women’s teams to book spots among the last 32 at Adelaide 2025

Published 01:31, 15 Nov 2025

Annique/Leona (SUI) vs. Paul/Kunst (GER) - Pool L #72189334

Germany’s Melanie Paul & Lea Kunst on the court in Adelaide

The two lowest seeded teams in Pool L of the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide claimed their second wins on Saturday and reserved their berths in the sixteenthfinal elimination round. Seeded 36^th and 37^th in the 48-team draw, Germany’s Melanie Paul & Lea Kunst and China’s Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi upset Australia’s favorites Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic and Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser & Leona Kernen, seeded 12^th and 13^th, respectively, and left them to fight with each other on Sunday to stay alive in the tournament.

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The Australian fans’ hopes for a first home win at the women’s World Championship were shattered again on Saturday. In the last match of the day, Paul & Kunst disappointed the crowd on the stands at center court with a dramatic 2-1 (21-14, 23-25, 15-6) victory over Clancy & Milutinovic. In a particularly thrilling second set, the lead went back and forth several times. The Aussies came close to leveling the match as they opened a 19-15 lead, but the Germans caught up with four in a row, denied two set points and wasted two match points of their own before conceding the set to the home team. Paul & Kunst, however, completely dominated the tie-breaker to deliver the upset. The two German athletes fired five aces each. 23-year-old Kunst also put up three kill blocks towards a match-high 24 points, while 25-year-old Paul finished with 23 points. 24-year-old Milutinovic led the Australian duo with 19 points, including five blocks and an ace, while 33-year-old Clancy, a three-time Olympian and an Olympic silver medalist at Tokyo 2020, signed off with 13 points.

Clancy/Milutinovic vs. Paul/Kunst - Beach Volleyball - WC - Women - Match Highlights, 15/11/2025

Earlier on Saturday, Yan & Xia mounted a solid 2-1 (19-21, 21-12, 15-9) turnaround against Annique & Leona. 21-year-old Yan topped the match charts with 25 points, including an impressive six kill blocks and two aces. 28-year-old two-time Olympian Xia chipped in with 14 points. 22-year-old Annique, who stepped in to replace injured Swiss star Tanja Huberli for this World Championship, led her team with 23 points, while 20-year-old Leona put away five aces to finish with 12 points in total.

Already qualified for the sixteenthfinals, on Sunday, Yan & Xia and Paul & Kunst will lock horns for the first place in the pool standings and a better position in the elimination draw.

Annique/Leona vs. Yan X./X. Y. Xia - Beach Volleyball - WC - Women - Match Highlights, 15/11/2025

Bracket leaders Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil, the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking, achieved their second win in Pool A and joined Ukraine’s Tetiana Lazarenko & Daria Romaniuk from the same pool into the sixteenthfinals. On Saturday, Thamela & Victoria put together a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) sweep of their match against Paraguay’s Michelle Valiente & Giuliana Poletti Corrales, who conceded their second loss and will have to fight for the third place in the pool against the other winless pair, Peru’s Gaona Arevalo & Allcca Merino, on Monday.

The American pairing of Molly Shaw with defending world champion Kelly Cheng and Spanish Olympians Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno secured the top two places in Pool G and will play against each other for the top of the table on Sunday, while the two winless teams – Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte and Australia’s Jasmine Fleming & Stefanie Fejes – will fight for survival in a direct duel for the third place. On Saturday, Shaw & Cheng defeated Paulikiene & Raupelyte by 2-0 (21-17, 21-13), while Dani & Tania beat Fleming & Fejes by a tight 2-0 (21-18, 26-24).

The situation in Pool K is similar, with undefeated Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger of Austria and Anouk Verge-Depre & Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland set to cross swords for the first place on Monday, while winless Elizabeth Alchin & Georgia Johnson of Australia and Crismil Paniagua & Julibeth Payano of the Dominican Republic will battle it out to stay in contention. The two sets of sisters collected their second wins on Saturday. The Klingers produced a 2-0 (21-9, 21-11) shutout of Paniagua & Payano, while the Verge-Depres took a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) win over Alchin & Johnson.

Pool J was the last one to get into action, with Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada hammering out a 2-0 (21-4, 21-9) sweep of their opening match against Morocco’s Mahassine Siad & Dina Mellal in just 25 minutes, and Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands defeating fellow Paris Olympians Clemence Vieira & Aline Chamereau of France by a convincing 2-0 (21-14, 21-15).