Welcome to the Road to Adelaide, our series breaking down the race to qualifying for the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships, which will be held in Adelaide, Australia, November 14-23. Of the 48 teams who qualify for the World Championships, 25 are earned via points, the standings of which are determined by your best six finishes in the 2025 year up through October 5, which follows a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Mexico. There is a country quota of four teams per federation who can qualify.
Ondrej Perusic is a new dad. Just two weeks into the adventure of a lifetime while at the Ostrava Elite, he had the familiar look of a man both thrilled to be a father and the relief of alas getting some God blessed sleep, as he was in a hotel far, far away from sleepless, infant-crying filled nights.
It was only fitting, then, that he’d win a gold medal on his first Father’s Day, first sweeping George and Saymon in the semifinals (21-18, 22-20) then France’s Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Teo Rotar in the finals (21-13, 23-21). Now with three medals — gold at the Yucatan Challenge, bronze in Ostrava, gold again in Alanya — Perusic and Schweiner are locks to defend their World Championship title from 2023. They jumped from No. 11 to No. 3 in the rankings and essentially need only to sign up for two more events — they’ll be at the Stare Jablonki Challenge next weekend and the Gstaad Elite the next — and they’ll shore up their berth.
For Rotar and Gauthier-Rat, too, it was a huge week, a second consecutive medal following a bronze at the Xiamen Challenge in mid-May. They leapt from No. 21 to No. 9 in the World Champs rankings. After Chase Budinger and Miles Evans settled for fifth, I wrote about how while it’s certainly no dream finish, it’s good enough. They are now No. 13 in the rankings. As for the rest of the men’s World Champs rankings, you can find them below:
Men’s Beach Volleyball World Championships Standings
- Tomas Capogrosso, Nico Capogrosso, Argentina: 3760 (5)
- Evandro Goncalves, Arthur Lanci, Brazil: 3560 (5)
- Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic: 3360 (4)
- David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, Sweden: 3340 (4)
- Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, Norway: 3300 (3)
- Jorge Alayo, Noslen Diaz, Cuba: 3260 (5)
- Michal Bryl, Bartosz Losiak, Poland: 3000 (4)
- Marco Grimalt, Esteban Grimalt, Chile: 2940 (6)
- Teo Rotar, Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, France: 2920 (6)
- Mark Nicolaidis, Izac Carracher, Australia: 2880 (6)
- Martins Plavins, Kristians Fokerots, Latvia: 2876 (6)
- Joao Pedrosa, Hugo Campos, Portugal: 2840 (6)
- Miles Evans, Chase Budinger, USA: 2800 (6)
- Timo Hammarberg, Tim Berger, Austria: 2760 (6)
- Stefan Boermans, Yorick de Groot, Netherlands: 2700 (4)
- Chris Dressler, Philipp Waller, Austria: 2680 (6)
- Pedro Sousa, Renato Lima, Brazil: 2640 (5)
- Hendrik Mol, Mathias Berntsen, Norway: 2580 (4)
- Remi Bassereau, Calvin Aye, France: 2560 (6)
- Cherif Younousse, Ahmed Tijan, Qatar: 2520 (5)
- Lukas Pfretzschner, Sven Winter, Germany: 2500 (6)
- James Shaw, Chaim Schalk, USA: 2400 (4)
- Sam Cottafava, Gianluca Dal Corso, Italy: 2400 (6)
- Ruben Penninga, Matthew Immers, Netherlands: 2200 (5)
- Yves Hauusener, Felix Freidli, Switzerland: 2194 (5)
Women’s Beach Volleyball World Championships Standings
It was only a few weeks ago that Anouk Verge-Depre and Zoe Verge-Depre won their first medal as a team, a bronze at one of the coolest events on the Beach Pro Tour. It was an emotional and poetic one, too, in Ostrava, they very place where they last played against one another.
“It’s amazing because we just started,” Zoe said after winning that Ostrava bronze. “We’re a fresh team. To end it in a highlight like this gives us the confidence.”
Consider that confidence cashed in on. The Verge-Depres won all six matches and dropped just a single set en route to a gold medal at the Alanya Challenge, topping Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth — their quarterfinal opponents in Ostrava — in an excellent final. It’s the second gold medal of Zoe’s career, following a win at the Guadalajara Challenge a year ago with Esmee Bobner, and the first for Anouk since a victory at the Goa Challenge in October of 2023 alongside Joana Mader. The 800 points vaulted them from No. 10 to No. 5 in the World Champs standings and, like the aforementioned Czechs, all but locks them in for Adelaide this fall.
The biggest move, however, was made by the Czech Republic’s Marketa Svozilova and Marie-Sara Stochlova, whose fifth-place finish put them from unranked to No. 11, just behind Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli and Leona Kernen.
After all of the USA Volleyball women bowed out in ninth or worse, I wrote about what a glut of missed opportunities those were, particularly with Toni Rodriguez and Kylie Deberg’s future in doubt after an injury at the AVP League.
The remainder of the World Championship rankings are below:
- Carol Salgado, Rebecca Cavalcanti, Brazil: 4760 (6)
- Thamela Coradelli, Victoria Lopes, Brazil: 4220 (5)
- Reka Orsi Toth, Valentina Gottardi, Italy: 4090 (6)
- Kristen Nuss, Taryn Brasher, USA: 3760 (4)
- Anouk Verge-Depre, Zoe Verge-Depre, Switzerland: 3392 (6)
- Claudia Scampoli, Giada Bianchi, Italy: 3390 (6)
- Terese Cannon, Megan Kraft, USA: 3380 (4)
- Dorina Klinger, Ronja Klinger, Austria: 3020 (4)
- Kelly Cheng, Molly Shaw, USA: 3020 (4)
- Tanja Huberli, Leona Kernen, Switzerland: 3020 (6)
- Marketa Svozilova, Marie-Sara Stochlova, Czech Republic: 2780 (6)
- Clemence Vieira, Aline Chamereau, France: 2720 (6)
- Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova, Latvia: 2700 (4)
- Michelle Valiente, Giuliana Poletti, Paraguay: 2628(6)
- Toni Rodriguez, Kylie DeBerg, USA: 2540 (5)
- Ana Patricia Silva, Duda Lisboa, Brazil: 2360 (3)
- Andressa Cavalcanti, Taina Silva, Brazil: 2300 (6)
- Svenja Muller, Cinja Tillmann, Germany: 2260 (4)
- Emi van Driel, Wies Bekhuis, Netherlands: 2240 (6)
- Lezana Placette, Alexia Richard, France: 2240 (6)
- Taru Lahti, Niina Ahtiainen, Finland: 2200 (5)
- Taliqua Clancy, Jana Milutinovic, Australia: 2200 (6)
- Maddie Anderson, Brook Bauer, USA: 2160 (6)
- Monika Paulikiene, Aine Raupelyte, Lithuania: 2160 (6)
- Malgorzata Ciezskowska, Urzsula Lunio, Poland: 2140 (6)
- Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson, Canada: 2120 (3)
Zoe Verge-Depre/Volleyball World photo
