Germany & Brazil to play World Tour Finals tie-breaker

Hamburg, Germany, August 26, 2017 – When tenth-seeded Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst and fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa enter the Rothenbaum stadium for the gold medal match of the $800,000 Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone this Saturday a lot will be on the line in Hamburg.

With the tournament nearing the end of its third edition, Germany and Brazil are the only countries to have collected gold medals so far with Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca topping the podium in Fort Lauderdale in 2015 and Ludwig/Walkenhorst winning last year in Toronto.

That means that the team that comes out on top in Hamburg will position its country as the women’s gold medal leader for the World Tour Finals.

“This is cool, but we really try to focus on our team,” said Agatha. “We have never played against them so I am looking forward to see how it will be, especially being here, in their country, and in front of so many fans. Going through these moments with Duda, who is still very young, means a lot for us and for the growing of our team.”

Ludwig and Walkenhorst will have additional support coming from the stands. The Germans, who live in Hamburg, had nearly 9,000 passionate fans on their backs in the semifinal win over Talita and Larissa.

“We just want to give something back to this amazing crowd that supported us through the entire week,” Ludwig commented. “Agatha and Duda had a phenomenal season and we never played them. Duda is amazing. She is a young, fresh, player, while Agatha is more experienced.”

Both teams get to the gold medal match, scheduled to start at 13.55 (local time) with perfect 4-0 records, having won each of the eight sets they played so far. At 12.30, second-seeded Larissa/Talita of Brazil and third-seeded Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada will play for the bronze medal.