Lausanne, Switzerland, March 4, 2018 – Doha returns to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour as the Qatari capital hosts a World Tour tournament for the fourth time, and the first since 2016.
The 4-Star KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup runs from March 6-10, but unlike the previous three tournaments the competition will take place at the KATARA Cultural Village rather than the Al Gharafa Sports Club.
One half of the defending champions will be back to defend his gold medal.
In 2016 Alex Ranghieri won gold with Adrian Carambula, but since the end of 2017 the pair that represented Italy at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games went their separate ways.
Ranghieri now plays with Marco Caminati, who had filled in when Carambula was injured in the past, and with whom Ranghieri won gold at the 2015 Lucerne Open.
Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen also know what it takes to top the podium in Doha, having won the 2015 edition of the tournament.
The tournament is likely to be the pair’s first of the year, and a repeat of their 2016 triumph would be the German’s fourth gold on the World Tour.
Three teams that have already topped a World Tour podium in 2018 are also set to head to Doha.
Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs won their first World Tour gold at the 4-Star Dela Beach Open in The Hague in January, and then won silver at the 3-Star Kish Island tournament.
Mariusz Prudel and Jakub Szalankiewicz beat Plavins and Tocs in the Kish Island gold medal match to claim their first World Tour gold as a pair. It came soon after they had reached the 4-Star Dela Beach Open quarterfinals.
They will be joined by last weekend's Fort Lauderdale Major gold medallists Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena of the United States.
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