Pingtan, China, May 8, 2025 – Beach volleyball stars Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan, fresh from winning the Doha Open in Qatar, and Kiwis Shaunna Polley/Olivia MacDonald, who claimed gold medal at the recent Phu Yen Open in Vietnam, are among big names who will be out to prove their prowess at the AVC Beach Tour Pingtan Open between May 8 and 11, 2025.
A total of 40 teams comprising 20 men’s and 20 women’s pairs will strut their stuff in the double-gender event to vie for top honour, US$10,000 prize money and AVC ranking points. The participating countries consist of Qatar, Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, Iran, Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Vanuatu and Singapore.
Due to the presence of big names in the men’s event, action-packed four days of hard-fought battles are expected to unfold in the Pingtan Open.
Apart from Cherif/Ahmed, the former three-time Asian champions who have already captured back-to-back AVC Beach Tour titles in Samila Open in Songkhla, Thailand and AVC Beach Tour Doha Open on their home soil, those who are likely to pose strong challenge against the world No.12 Qataris include current Asian winners D’Artagnan Potts/Jack Pearse from Australia, Paul Burnett/Luke Ryan, another Australian duo who snatched the AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open in Philippines, Iran’s 2024 Asian Championship bronze medallists Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajanighasab and Kiwis Ben O’Dea/Bradley Fuller, silver medallists at the 2025 Samila Open and winners at the Beach Pro Tour Futures Coolangatta.
In the women’s event, Kiwis Shaunna Polley/Olivia MacDonald, fresh from winning the Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Futures in Philippines, are hungry for another victory and remain the strong title contender at the Pingtan Open.
However, their determination to reach a certain goal or win another title in Pingtan is not an easy mission as daunting tasks await them. Top teams from Australia including Nuvali Open champions Jasmine Fleming/Stefanie Fejes, Nuvali Open bronze medallists Elizabeth Alchin/Georgia Johnson as well as China’s Yan Xu/Zhou Mingli, who captured gold at the 2024 Wuhan Qingshan Futures, Thailand’s 2021 Asian champions Taravadee Naraphornapat/Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee, who lost the championship match in the Phu Yen Open to the Kiwis, and Japan’s Ren Matsumoto/Non Matsumoto, who took gold medal at the 24th Samila Open are all ready to put the Kiwi duo in trouble and stop their good run in Pingtan Open.
Ahead of the main draw action on Thursday, General Technical Meeting was held on Wednesday at Banquet Hall, Argyle Resort Pingtan Hotel at 5pm local time, with Mr Liu Bing, CVA Beach Volleyball Director, presiding.
Also in attendance were AVC Technical Delegate Mr Thomas Chang from Hong Kong, China, AVC Referee Delegate Mr Wang Leijun from China, Ms Nattalida Sumdangdech from AVC Beach Volleyball Department and all participating teams.
During the meeting, Mr Thomas Chang informed teams of the technical issues, while Mr Wang Leijun explained about the match protocol and the rules of the game.
Teams in both men’s and women’s events were divided into 8 pools (Pools A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H) for pool round-robin preliminaries. After the pool play, only top two teams from each pool will make the cut for the elimination round starting with round of 16. As the losers will bow out of the tournament, the winners will next progress to quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
On Thursday, the very first day of the double-gender competition, the first serve is scheduled for 9.30am local time, with the opening ceremony being held at 7.30pm.
MATCH SCHEDULE
MEN
WOMEN
POOLS
MEN
WOMEN
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