Last 5-star World Tour stop is in Vienna

The last of this season’s 5-star FIVB World Tour tournaments is underway in Vienna (AUT), with the World Tour Finals just two weeks off in Hamburg (GER). The top seeds:

Men:

  1. Vitor Felipe/Evandro Oliveira (BRA) ~ Evandro: Itapema Open 4-star winner
  2. Alison Cerutti/Andre Stein (BRA) ~ Stein: Itapema Open 4-star winner
  3. Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (POL) ~ Poland Open 4-star winners
  4. Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (NED) ~ Huntington Beach Open 4-star winners
  5. Nick Lucena/Phil Dalhausser (USA) ~ Ft. Lauderdale Open 5-star winners

Women:

  1. Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan (CAN) ~ Gstaad Major 5-star winners
  2. Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson (CAN) ~ Poland Open 4-star winners
  3. Agatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa (BRA) ~ Itapema Open 4-star winners
  4. Barbara Seixas/Fernanda Alves (BRA) ~ Huntington Beach Open 4-star winners
  5. Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (GER) ~ Gstaad Open 5-star runners-up

The top-seeded American women’s team is Alexandra Klineman and April Ross, in sixth.

Vienna hosted the World Championships in 2017, with Evandro and Andre (BRA) winning the men’s final from Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst (AUT). Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst won the women’s title over April Ross and Lauren Fendrick of the U.S.

As a five-star event, the prize purse is one of the largest on tour: $300,000 for both men and women, with $40,000 to the winning team, then $32,000 for second, $20,000 for third, $16,000 for fourth, $12,000 to the quarterfinal losers, $8,000 for the Round of 16 losers and on down to $4,000 for losers in the Round of 32.

Look for results here.