The women’s teams that won the last four Elite16 events of the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour will lead the way in the seventh top-level tournament of the season next week in Hamburg, Germany.

Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson and USA’s Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss occupy the top three spots in the entry list of the Hamburg Elite16, which will take place at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium from August 16-20.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

The reigning world champions, 25-year-old Brazilians Duda and Ana Patrícia made it to the podium in four of the six Elite16 events they played in 2023, taking gold in Ostrava and Gstaad, silver in Tepic and bronze in Uberlândia. The top-seeded duo in Germany, the two had to settle for fifth in Montréal, in the most recent Beach Pro Tour event they played at.

Canadians Melissa, 30, and Brandie, 31, will enter the Hamburg Elite16 seeded second after their victory in Montréal, which was their first as partners at the top level – they had also claimed the title of the Jurmala Challenge. In 2023, the Canadian Olympians also took bronze in Ostrava.

Seeded third, Kloth, 26, and Nuss, 25, took the title of the Uberlândia Elite16, in April. Besides that victory, the two also celebrated another title at the La Paz Challenge and a bronze medal at the Gstaad Elite 16.

Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Müller are the highest-seeded German duo, in fourth place. The bronze medalists of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship are still looking for their first medals on the Beach Pro Tour this season.

American Kelly Cheng, who won the Hamburg Elite16 in 2022 with former partner Betsi Flint, is seeded fifth with teammate Sara Hughes, right above the recently-crowned European champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland, who are sixth.

Seeded seventh, eighth and ninth are respectively Australia’s Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho, Brazil’s Carol Salgado/Bárbara Seixas and Brazil’s Ágatha Bednarczuk/Rebecca Cavalcanti.

The last three teams guaranteed in the Hamburg Elite16 main draw are tenth-seeded Americans Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon, 11^th-seeded Germans Sandra Ittlinger and Karla Borger and 12^th-seeded Thais Taravadee Naraphornrapat and Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee.

Beach Pro Tour Montréal Elite16 – Women's Entry List

The qualifier in the German city will also be heavily competitive with China’s Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia, the Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam and Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova occupying the top three spots.

The main draw begins on Thursday, after the conclusion of the qualifier, and will have four pools with four teams each. The top three teams in each pool will take part in the elimination rounds, which will feature the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals, on Saturday. The semifinals and medal matches will be played on Sunday.

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