The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is set to return to Hamburg next week, as the German city prepares to welcome the seventh Elite16 event of the season from Wednesday to Sunday.

The iconic Am Rothenbaum Stadium will be the stage for the tournament, which will count on 28 men’s teams from 17 different countries during the five days of action.

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

The tournament has 12 teams guaranteed in the main draw and 16 in the qualifier, who will be the first to get on the court, on Wednesday, when they will compete for the final four spots in the main draw of the German event.

Reigning Olympic and world champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway are the top-seeded duo entering the Hamburg Elite16. The Beach Volley Vikings won three of the six Elite16 events held so far in the season, including the most recent one, in Montréal, Canada, in July, but will be looking to bounce back after a frustrating fifth-place finish at the European Championship.

Americans Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, who faced the Norwegians in the gold medal matches of the last two Elite16 events, winning in Gstaad and losing in Montréal, are seeded second in the main draw in Hamburg, right above Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, who took gold in Uberlândia and will be back together after sitting out of the Montréal event due to an injury.

Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers are the highest-seeded German team, appearing in fourth place. The two took bronze in Hamburg last year and also stepped on the podium in third place in Tepic in 2023.

Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan and Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri occupy the next three spots in the entry list, raking fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Seeded eighth and ninth, Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak, who are the defending Hamburg Elite16 champions, and the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans/Yorick De Groot have both been dealing with injuries recently and will confirm their participation in the event over the next few days.

Completing the main draw lineup in Hamburg are Brazil’s Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, Germany’s Paul Henning/Sven Winter and Brazil’s Pedro Solberg/Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes.

Beach Pro Tour Montréal Elite16 – Men's Entry List

The qualifier in Hamburg will feature some heavyweights of international beach volleyball, with five Olympic medalists in action – Dutch Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, who took silver last year at the event, Italians Paolo Nicolai (with Samuele Cottafava) and Daniele Lupo (with Enrico Rossi) and Spanish Pablo Herrera (with Adrián Gavira).

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.

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2023
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter