Uhl and Schurholz earn first Beach Pro Tour gold

Janne Uhl and Paula Schurholz celebrated their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold, both as a team and individually. The German pair topped the final standings at the Madrid Futures in Spain, accompanied by silver medalists Alex Merle and Anouk Dupin of France and bronze medalists Tjasa Kotnik and Maja Marolt of Slovenia on the podium.

19-year-old Uhl and 23-year-old Schurholz lost only one in six matches played in Madrid, the Pool A final against top-seeded Spanish Olympians Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno. In the semifinals, the ninth-seeded Germans produced a 2-1 (21-12, 11-21, 15-12) victory over seventh-seeded Kotnik and Marolt, and in the final, they followed up with another three-set win, a dramatic 2-1 (21-13, 18-21, 20-18) in the overtime of the tie-breaker against sixth-seeded Merle and Dupin. Previously, Uhl and Schurholz had one silver and one bronze on the Beach Pro Tour.

Merle and Dupin reached the final undefeated, on a streak of four consecutive victories. The last one, in the semifinals, came on an injury withdrawal by Alvarez and Moreno, and secured the French athletes their first medal on the Tour as a team. At her previous appearance, in early May, Dupin triumphed with Valencia Futures gold alongside Saofe Duval.

After suffering their first loss of the tournament in the semifinals, Kotnik and Marolt also made the podium on a forfeit win over Alvarez and Moreno that brought them the bronze. It was the second Beach Pro Tour medal for the Slovenian duo and the first since their Ljubljana Futures silver back in 2022.

Final Standings

• 🥇 Janne Uhl and Paula Schurholz (Germany)
• 🥈 Alex Merle and Anouk Dupin (France)
• 🥉 Tjasa Kotnik and Maja Marolt (Slovenia)

27 women teams representing 16 different countries took part in last week Madrid Futures. The next Futures events will be held this week, in Spiez, Switzerland from May 21 to 25, and in Wuhan Qingshan, China from May 22 to 25.

Photo credit: volleyballworld.com