FIVB World Tour 2019

    The start of the 2019 season was officially given after the end of the 2018 World Tour Finals in Hamburg. As usual, the 2019 calendar is far from complete or definitive, but FIVB released a preliminary list of events and dates.


    August 23-26, 2018: Siofok, Hungary - 1-star - Double gender
    August 28-September 1, 2018: Montpellier, France - 1-star - Double gender

    September 30-October 4, 2018: Qinzhou, China - 3-star - Double gender

    October 2-5, 2018: Bandar Torkaman, Iran, 1-star, Single gender – Men
    October 9-12, 2018: Babolsar, Iran, 1-star, Single gender – Men
    October 10-14, 2018: Yangzhou, China, 4-star - Double gender
    October 16-19, 2018: Bandar Anzali, Iran, 1-star, Single gender – Men
    October 17-21, 2018: Las Vegas, USA, 4-star, Double gender

    November 29-December 2, 2018: Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1-star, Double gender

    January 2-6, 2019: The Hague, Netherlands, 4-star, Double gender
    January 17-20, 2019: Visakhapatnam, India, 1-star, Double gender

    February 5-10, 2019: Fort Lauderdale, USA, 5-star (Beach Major Series), Double gender
    February 13-17, 2019: Florida (city TBD), USA, 3-star, Double gender

    March 6-10, 2019: TBC Sydney, Australia, 4-star - Double gender
    March 7-10, 2019: Kg Speu, Cambodia, 1-star, Single gender – Men
    March 12-16, 2019: Doha, Qatar, 4-star, Single gender – Men
    March 20-24, 2019: Texas (city TBD), USA, 3-star, Double gender
    March 21-24, 2019: Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2-star, Single gender – Men

    April 8-11, 2019: Satun, Thailand, 1-star, Double gender
    April 11-14, 2019: Langkawi, Malaysia,1-star, Double gender
    April 24-28, 2019: Xiamen, China, 3-star, Double gender
    April 25-28, 2019: Bangkok, Thailand, 1-star, Double gender

    May 1-5, 2019: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 3-star, Double gender
    May 8-12, 2019: Los Angeles (exact location TBD), USA, 4-star, Double gender
    May 8-12, 2019: TBC Lucerne, Switzerland, 3-star, Double gender
    May 15-19, 2019: Itapema, Brazil, 4-star, Double gender
    May 22-26, 2019: Jinjiang, China,4-star (TBC), Double gender
    May 23-26, 2019: Manila, Philippines, 1-star, Double gender
    May 29-June 2, 2019: Ostrava, Czech Republic, 4-star, Double gender

    June 6-9, 2019: Singapore, Singapore, 2-star, Double gender
    June 12-16, 2019: Warsaw, Poland, 4-star, Double gender
    June 19-23, 2019: TBC Rome, Italy, 5-star, Double gender
    June 19-23, 2019: FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships, Samila Beach, Thailand
    June 27-30, 2019 Miguel Pereira, Brazil, 1-star, Double gender
    June 28-July 7, 2019: FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, Hamburg, Germany, Double gender

    July 4-7, 2019: Qidong, China, 2-star, Double gender
    July 9-14, 2019: Gstaad, Switzerland, 5-star (Beach Major Series), Double gender
    July 17-21, 2019: Espinho, Portugal, 4-star, Double gender
    July 17-21, 2019: Edmonton, Canada, 3-star, Double gender
    July 24-28, 2019: Tokyo, Japan, 4-star, Double gender
    July 31-August 4, 2019: Vienna, Austria, 5-star (Beach Major Series), Double gender

    August 14-18, 2019: Moscow, Russia, 4-star, Double gender
    August 21-24, 2019: Salalah, Oman, 1-star, Single gender – Men
    August 21-24, 2019: Rubawu, Rwanda, 1-star, Double gender

    The second big event in 2019 and the first one with most/all of the world's best teams is being played right now in Doha, Qatar. A good tournament so far. Most of the rotations between players happened in the Brazilian teams and it seems they will need more time to stick together. A complete fiasco for all Brazilian pairs, only 2 had won their preliminary pools and both got eliminated in the Round 2, leaving Brazil entirely unrepresented in the quarterfinals. The Grimalt cousins with another good start into a season, having also won last week's 3-star Sydney Open.

    Brazilian teams have made more internal changes and exchange of partners than wins recently. Alison and Andre Loyola split up after the Qatar Open last week. The decision came allegedly from Andre who wasn't satisfied with their results so far. Now, Andre Loyola will pair up with George Wanderley, whereas Alison will play alongside the defensive specialist Alvaro Filho.

    A youtube channel with some of the games I found today. Features a lot of the matches from the current Xiamen 4 star tournament.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K4Kcefg080

    Stoyanovskiy-Krasilnikov from Russia won the 4-star Xiamen Open in China. They dropped only a single set throughout the entire tournament and it happened in their opening match in the preliminary group. This is their second title in the season after the victory at the 4-star Open in The Hague in January. They also placed second in Yangzhou (also 4 stars) in October. They paired up as a team exactly in Yangzhou and considering their results, they will soon jump higher in the World Rankings by collecting points. They had entered the event as 33rd in the rankings but this will surely change.


    In the final they beat one of the long-lasting duos on the Tour Herrera-Gavira of Spain.

    Quote from YavorD

    Brazilian teams have made more internal changes and exchange of partners than wins recently. Alison and Andre Loyola split up after the Qatar Open last week. The decision came allegedly from Andre who wasn't satisfied with their results so far. Now, Andre Loyola will pair up with George Wanderley, whereas Alison will play alongside the defensive specialist Alvaro Filho.

    I'm not sure exactly what's happening in Brazil. I still don't understand why André/Evandro split. Tokyo is gonna be a complete fiasco for us, unfortunately.

    There have been to many reshuffles with the Brazilian men, and it is showing at the moment. It's very hard to actually pick out which duo is likely to be the best of the rest, they are so similar in their inconsistencies in play. It''s quite frustrating to watch. On the other hand I am excited to see how the volleyball vikings will bounce back after the injury to Andes Mol, which delayed their start to the season. 5th place was not so bad for them, and losing to the Spanish veterans is never a bad thing..

    The Norwegians Mol-Sorum with another World Tour win, this time under the grey Chinese skies of Jinjiang (4 stars). By the way, I wonder if Chinese people ever get to see the sun every once in a while in the summer. Pictures from the World Tour events in China are always grey and gloomy.


    Last week, the Norwegians also grabbed the title at the 4-star Itapema Open in Brazil.

    Announcing Mol-Sorum's World Tour wins seems like a copy-paste action already :D It reminds me of the time Ricardo-Emanuel used to dominate international beach volleyball. One of the game's best players, Alison, looked helpless throughout most of the final match in Vienna yesterday. The Brazilians had a very good week in Austria and yet they lost quite convincingly in straight sets (-11, -17 , if I am not mistaken) against the reigning and probably future World Tour champions from Norway. These two are truly something special!

    They have certainly elevated the game. It really is a shame they had that let down for the gold at the world championships- but they could still go for most record wins in a season and tie the Brazilians if they win Rome.

    Quote from Agguerro

    They have certainly elevated the game. It really is a shame they had that let down for the gold at the world championships- but they could still go for most record wins in a season and tie the Brazilians if they win Rome.

    Indeed. This is probably the defeat they will regret for the rest of the season. However, credit due where credit is due, there was a spectacular German team playing in front of a home crowd in the semifinal. Wickler was in the form of his life in Hamburg. There was another nuance to that semifinal outcome which I mentioned in the WCH thread. There was a massive, not sanctioned carry in favour of the Germans towards the end of the decisive tie-break which, unfortunately, also played a small role. But let's see how the Finals in Rome will unfold.

    Cant wait for Rome!

    Anders Mol and Christian Sorum win Eurovolley beach volleyball and become European champions for the second time in a row. This makes it their 8th in of the season!! With the quality of beach volleyball players at the moment this is beyond impressive. More should be made of this in the volleyball world I think. also considering their ages and how they are backing up their stellar season last year, it's just great. I'm really rooting for them to win the finals in Rome too

    The group matches of the World Tour Finals start today, yesterday marked the end of the qualifiers. As this event is the biggest international one this year, after the WCH, granting ranking points for the Olympics, the hype is understandably high and all teams arrived in Rome. Live streams from all courts are fortunately available on YouTube here.

    The final in Rome will be a repetition of the 2019 WCH final in Hamburg, namely Thole-Wickler from Germany against Stoyanovskiy-Krasilnikov from Russia. Although Mol-Sorum are the Tour leaders and have a comfortable margin at the top, thanks, of course, to their massive number of wins this season, they might be a bit disappointed with themselves for losing the two semifinals in Hamburg and Rome. The two tournaments that highlight the 2019 season, after all. Based on what I saw tonight, the Russians should have a few more weapons against the Germans and should be able to add another gold to their names.


    The Russians managed to take Anders Mol out of the game in sets 2 and 3. Having lost the opener to a very concentrated Norwegian team, with Sorum playing cheekily with Stoyanovskiy's block till almost the very end of set 3, the Russians started the second set aggressively from the service line and this tactic brought them success. Mol's reception was not great and what is worse, his trademark cross-court attack from 'zone 2' worked only like 50% of the time, if not less. In the tie-break, Stoyanovskiy's block did the rest for team Russia. A very solid performance and change of rhythm for the newly crowned world champions who, if stats are correct, are now responsible for Mol-Sorum's only 5th defeat in 2019 :huh:Still, I can't help but make parallels to the WCH podium in Hamburg where we had the exact 3 semifinalists, plus another American duo, back then Bourne - Tr. Crabb.


    It has been a great tournament and there was great beach volleyball also earlier on. Gibb - T. Crabb took a spectacular second set against Herrera-Gavira (34-32) in a battle of the 'old dogs'. A great first set was demonstrated by Rossi-Carambula and Perusic-Schweiner in Round 2. The Czechs almost made the Italians a present giving away their entire lead, yet Ondrej Perusic did a good job reading Adrian Carambula. Perusic-Schweiner are, to me, one of the most improved teams of 2019.

    Despite Stoyanovskiy-Krasilnikov's win in Rome, the Finals bronze medallists and reigning World Tour champions Mol-Sorum from Norway finished the season with a comfortable lead at the top and should retain their World Tour crown at least for another year. Let's wait for FIVB's season announcement.