Baden, Austria. The FIVB World Tour BADEN OPEN presented by SPORT.LAND.NÖ will start in one week with the qualification round, with the Main Draw following a day later on Friday, August 21. The anticipation is mounting, especially with so many elite teams due to compete in the outskirts of Vienna. After all, the BADEN OPEN is also one of the few World Tour tournaments still scheduled for this summer.
The defending champions Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst will find in the top-seeded Swiss Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson their main challengers; last year’s gold medal winner Katharina Schützenhöfer will be missing the tournament due to injury. Her partner Lena Plesiutschnig and interim teammate Dorina Klinger have made a name for themselves last weekend in Wolfurt, securing first place in their first tournament together – a stop of the Austrian Beach Volleyball Tour. However, a number of elite international teams are due to play in Baden this year, thus contributing to a very challenging field for the home stars.
There are still a few tickets available, with Friday and the final day (Sunday) already sold out! Live streaming of all matches will be available at LAOLA1.at as well as at www.beachvolleyball-baden.at. ORF Sport + will broadcast the competition live starting with the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Lena Plesiutschnig/Dorina Klinger (seeded at no. 7), Nadine Strauss/Teresa Strauss (no. 9 and last year’s bronze medal winners), Eva Freiberger/Viktoria Fink (10) represent Austria in the women’s Main Draw. A wild card went to Franziska Friedl/Eva Pfeffer (11). Anja Dörfler and Julia Radl will play the qualification round.
Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller are among the standout home teams due to compete in Baden
Doppler/Horst (2), the reigning national champions Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller (4), Alexander Huber/Christoph Dressler (5), and wild card holders Moritz Pristauz/Laurenz Leitner (7, pictured above) compose the Austrian contingent for the men’s Main Draw. Tobias Winter and Julian Hörl will play the qualification. Moritz Kindl/Mathias Seiser, Florian Schnetzer/Lorenz Petutschnig and Maximilian Trummer/Felix Friedl will contest on Wednesday, August 19, the country quota for a spot in the qualification round.
Due to the restrictions in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the competition this year takes place at the Weilburgpark and not directly at the Strandbad. However, access to the spa is available for all ticket holders. The construction work has been taking place since the beginning of the week. A maximum of 200 visitors can be present at the event area at the same time. International participants must submit a negative COVID-19 test taken at the earliest three days before the event. A mobile test station will be available on site with strict hygiene protocols in place as well.
Photo credit: Florian Schrötter
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