CM.com King of the Court Utrecht 2021 has celebrated its new Queens and Kings. The duo for the occasion, Spain’s Maria Belén Carro, Italy’s Marta Menegatti and 19-year-olds David Åhman, Jonatan Hellvig from Sweden wowed the crowd with their play in the final round and became the Kings and Queens of Utrecht. The Austrian Moritz Pristauz who teamed up with the Swiss blocker Marco Krattiger repeated the great performance from last week Hamburg and took silver for the second time in a row. More great finishes from teams from Slovenia, Austria and Czech Republic.
Men
In the final round the Swedish teenagers pulled out all the stops and ran to fourteen points in just 7 minutes, with Belgians Tom van Walle and Dries Koekelkoren following with five. Last year’s King Marco Krattiger and his partner Moritz Pristauz were on zero at that time. Then, the most incredible seven minutes of beach volleyball occurred. On three occasion Van Walle hit an ace on Sweden’s matchpoint. The Belgians, who played their final tournament in their careers, reached eight points.
But Krattiger and Pristauz suddenly found their rhythm and also got to eight points, with a longer stay at the King’s side. That meant they were the silver medalists, because the time ran out before either of the teams could catch up Åhman and Hellvig. The grand prize of 12,500 US Dollars and two Maurice Lacroix watches plus the longest stay of the tournament herewith belonged to the young Swedes.
One of the pleasant surprises was the Slovenian duo Pokeršnik J./Zemljak, who in their first King of the Court just missed the final and finished in a strong 6th place. The Czech duo of Vaclav Bercik and Jiri Sedlak got a last minute spot and proved that it was more than deserved. Just missing the semi-finals in the extra playoff round put them at a final 11th place. The more than an established Austrian World Tour team of Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller had some more difficulties to find the rhythm in the new format and ended their appearance after the first round on the 17th place.
Women
The women’s final round happened without Middle European teams as the Austrian champions Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig had to withdraw before the start of the second phase due to health problems and were replaced by the local team Priem/Reinders.
Also on start was Anja Dörfler, who teamed up with the Spaniard Angela Lobato. Matching up great early they made it all the way to the semifinal, where they were eliminated by a single point difference to the Japanese. Nevertheless, Anja secured a strong 9th place on the Queen side.
Four days in Utrecht
After 26 matches CM.com King of the Court Utrecht 2021 was over on Saturday night. It once again was a spectacle for young and old. A total of $ 52,000 in prize money was awarded and eight Maurice Lacroix watches presented. Over twenty five hours of live television were broadcast all around the world. And more that 6,000 spectators visited the corona-proof stadium on the Jaarbeursplein in Utrecht.
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