The world of women’s beach volleyball has a new number one team. After Barbara Seixas and Carol Solberg had occupied the top of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking for almost four months, another Brazilian pair took over after last week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in South Africa. Cape Town bronze medallists and reigning world champions Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos took possession of the number one spot for the first time.
Beach Pro Tour 2022
Duda & Ana Patricia climb to number one in the world
Cherif & Ahmed back into top three
Published 09:07, 08 Nov 2022
Duda & Ana Patricia in Cape Town
Admittedly, Duda started the season at the top of the ranking. Even after her partnership with Agatha Bednarczuk ended at the end of last season, the pair continued ruling as the number one team in the ranking until mid-April, when Dutch duo Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon took over for about three months before yielding to Barbara and Carol. The 1,000 points Duda and Ana Patricia claimed with their third place in South Africa improved their total to 7,960, more than enough to move from the third position they enjoyed last week and above previous leaders Barbara and Carol (7,020 points), and Stam and Schoon (7,000), both of whom skipped the Cape Town event.
The newly formed Brazilian pair of Talita Antunes and Thamela Coradello, who won gold on Sunday, entered the World Ranking straight at position 102, with 1,200 points, while the team they beat in the final, USA’s Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil took 1,100 points for a new total of 5,100, just enough to enter the top 10 for the first time, moving 13 spots up from their 23rd rank last week.
Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard of France, who finished fourth in Cape Town, claimed 900 points and ascended nine spots from 37th to 28th, while three of the quarterfinalists took positions 16 through 18 – USA’s Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss up from number 28, Japan’s Miki Ishii and Sayaka Mizoe up from number 22, and USA’s Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft up from number 31, in that order. Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik and Tajda Lovsin, who also finished fifth in Cape Town, improved from 45th to 39th.
On the men’s side, Cape Town winners Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway solidified their number one spot in the World Ranking, improving their record to 7,910 points and widening the gap between them and second-ranked Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen to 690 points after the Dutch team ended their Cape Town campaign at the quarterfinals.
There is a new duo in the number three position, however. Former ranking leaders Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar took bronze in South Africa for a new total of 6,950 points and climbed three spots up, 250 points clear of previous number three pair Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak of Poland.
Meanwhile, Swedish youngsters David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, who made the podium at all of their last four international appearances, including the silver-medal performance in Cape Town, returned to the top 10 in the ranking, matching their all-time high from late May, when they rose to number 10 after winning gold at the Kusadasi Challenge. It was an improvement of two positions from last week’s 12th place they had after triumphing in Dubai.
Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, who finished fourth in South Africa, moved up right below the Swedes, in 11th place, three spots up from their previous 14th.
Cape Town quarterfinalists Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava of Italy climbed a spot and caught up with Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner in number six. The other two teams that finished fifth last weekend also improved their rankings. Austria’s Moritz Pristauz and Martin Ermacora ascended from 21st to 16th, while French teenagers Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar rose from 77th to 54th.
