The World Tour Finals delivered exactly what we expected on the men’s side and a pretty big surprise for the women. While Anders Mol and Christian Sorum are exploring paths no Norwegian has ever taken before, Karla Borger and Julia Sude continued in a proud German tradition of winning the final event of the season.
Sorum and Mol writing their own history.
Mol and Sorum have become the winningest European Team in FIVB Beach Volleyball history with their 14th victory. It was their second World Tour Finals win in a vintage performance that demonstrated their mental toughness, their ability to score points late in sets and adaptability. As a team they now rank fifth on the all time international victories list according to BVBInfo.com and are just one win away from entering a three-way tie for third. They aren’t quite half way to the record 34 team victories for Emanuel Rego & Ricardo Santos of Brazil, but at their age, if the FIVB can stage a decent number of tournaments in the coming years, it is definitely within their reach.
Beachvolley Vikings path to victory
They dropped a match in pool play to Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen but the five team, complete round robin format meant their 3-1 match record was enough to win pool B. That pool included what may have been the best match of the tournament, a firey three-setter against Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Samba of Qatar that ended 21-17, 17-21, 16-14. Ahmed was playing some next level volleyball at the end of the second set, but the Qataris decision to target Sorum with every serve in the final set backfired as Christian made them pay.
In the semifinals it was another three-setter against Christiaan Varenhorst & Steven van de Velde. The Dutch men won their last head-to-head back in the Ostrava as they desperately fought for a place in the Tokyo Olympics, but this time Anders and Christian came out on top, 16-21, 21-18, 15-13. Varenhorst and van de Velde reached the semis with an epic three set victory over Cherif and Ahmed of their own earlier on Saturday.
Sunday’s final finished in two sets, but Mol and Sorum required a couple of big comebacks to secure the victory over Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner. Anders and Christian did what they do so often, turned what would have been a desperate situation for other teams into a controlled victory. In the first set against impressive Czechs, they were behind 18-20 and promptly ran off four points in a row to win 22-20. In the second, Perusic and Schweiner played a nearly perfect set and reached 20 points first again but eventually fell 23-21. Anders Mol scored the final point with a huge block as he so often does in gold medal matches.
Silver lining for an emotional 2021
For Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner a silver medal wraps up a great year. They started the season in what appeared to be a battle for Tokyo but a win in Qatar and several other strong performances including silver in Ostrava saw them easily qualify for the Olympics. At the games they had to forfeit their first match because of a positive COVID test and though they played after a forfeit, they didn’t get the Olympic experience they wanted. This week they showed what could have been in Tokyo. Ondrej and David beat every team they played before the Norway match, including Nicolai and Lupo twice.
Karla Borger and Julia Sude Win the Big Prize
For the fourth time in the last five World Tour Finals a German team stood on top of the podium. This was the first time one of the players wasn’t Laura Ludwig. Borger and Sude have worked hard to step out of Ludwig’s shadow and have been the best team from their country on the World Tour in recent years. Seeing them win the World Tour Finals was a big surprise, but perhaps if I had looked at it in terms of their country’s success, I should have expected it.
The first serve of the championship match against Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Parades was a very good sign for the Germans. A tough Karla Borger serve caused a Sarah Pavan overpass and Julia Sude punished the error with an emphatic kill. The points the Canadians did score on side out took more work than usual and Borger’s precise hitting made Pavan’s block a non-factor and kept Humana-Paredes constantly on the run. Add some very big blocks by Julia Sude to the mix and set one was a runaway victory for the Germans 21-13.
The second set was a much closer affair with neither team able to open up more than a one point advantage after the first side switch. The Canadians fought hard and it looked like we’d see many extra points in the second set, but a rare hitting error by Sarah Pavan gifted the final point to Germany 23-21.
Early tournament matches set the stage
Pavan and Humana-Paredes had cruised through the tournament to that point amassing a 10-1 set record, including a dominant semifinals victory over arch rivals April Ross and Alix Klineman (21-15, 21-12). Borger and Sude didn’t have it nearly as easy and were nearly eliminated from pool play where they finished 2-2. They had an extra step to the finals and came up big with their first victory ever over Agatha and Duda in the quarters. In the semifinals they beat Russia’s Nadezda Makroguzova & Svetlana Kholomina, a team they lost to earlier in Pool A.
Alix and April beat Makroguzova & Kholomina in the third place match to end their wildly successful 2021 season with a bronze.