Middle European Teams advance at the King of the Court Finals in Doha

Aspire Zone in Doha is the venue of the King of the Court Final. 20 men’s and 15 women’s teams are fighting for the crowns in an exciting and fairly new beach volleyball format. MEVZA is represented in four men’s and two women’s teams and in pursuit of podium finishes.

After two King of the Court events in 2021, Hamburg and Utrecht, Doha is now hosting the season finals. Over the course of the next 3 days, the teams will go through the Group Stage, Semifinals and Finals to crown their Kings and Queens (of the court).

On the men’s side Moritz Pristauz teamed up with the “Lion King” from Latvia Aleksandrs Samoilovs, after the injury withdrawal of his regular partner Martin Ermacora. Especially after the second place finish in Utrecht, where he played with Switzerland’s Krattiger, Pristauz is considered as one of the tournament favourites.
After the recent split of the legendary Austrian team Doppler/Horst, this is the first international showing of one of the “silver boys” Clemens Doppler with his new partner Thomas Kunert. Both Austrian teams managed to advance directly from 1st phase into the Group Stage.
Still hoping to do so is the Slovenian Nejc Zemljak, who replaced the injured Martins Plavins and is playing with the younger of the Samoilovs brothers, Mihails. The Slovenia/Latvian duo finished 4th in their 1st phase pool, which advances to them to an extra playoff round to hopefully qualify them for the Group Stage.
Less fortunate was the only Czech representative on the men’s side Vaclav Bercik, who was just a point shy of clearing the 1st phase together with his interim partner from Australia Mark Nicolaidis and is therefore already eliminated from the competition.

The women’s side of the bracket features a Czech team in Barbora Hermannová and Marie-Sára Štochlová and the Slovenian/Czech duo in Martina Williams and Tjaša Kotnik.
Hermannová a two-time Olympian has teamed up with Štochlova after the Tokyo Olympics and former partners Marketa Slukova temporary retreat from the beach volleyball courts. Kotnik/Williams although an interim duo is no stranger to playing together as they already teamed up in 2018 at the p1440 event in Huntington Beach, California. Both teams will start in the Group Stage later on this afternoon.

Schedule and results
King of the Court YouTube Live Stream (English Commentary)
Spontent Twitch Live Stream (German Commentary)