Vienna, Austria, July 27, 2018 – Brazilian rising star Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa is set to enter a new stage of her beach volleyball career as partner Agatha Bednarczuk and her prepare to compete in the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch next week.
Duda, who is arguably the most accomplished young player in the history of the sport, will turn 20 on Tuesday, one day before Agatha and her play their first match at the Danube Island in the Austrian capital. It will not be her first time celebrating her birthday in Vienna as she was in the city last year as well for the World Championships.
“It was my first time playing in Austria and the tournament was incredible,” she said about her experience in Vienna in 2017. “Austrian fans are certainly among the most amazing in the world and they would interact with us all week-long. It was very special to me and I’ll always have the memories of what I experienced in those days.”
The daughter of former player Cida Lisboa, Duda has won a total of five FIVB age-group World Championships since she topped the podium of the Under-19 event with Taina Silva in Portugal, in 2013, when she was just 14. The Sao Cristovao-native has also won a gold medal in the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics with Ana Patricia Silva.
Duda (left), Cida (centre) and Agatha
Duda has been playing in the World Tour regularly since 2015 and has already won 12 medals, including four golds, in just 32 events. She was named the Rookie of the Year in 2016 and this season Agatha and her finished on top in the four-star Itapema Open, in Brazil, back in May.
The duo has had top-10 finishes in each of the eight international tournaments they competed at in 2018 and enters the Vienna Major as the fourth-seeded team after registering back-to-back semifinal appearances in the last two events, winning the bronze medal in the four-star Warsaw tournament and finishing fourth in the Gstaad Major.
In the next months, Duda will start arguably the most important period of her career so far as the Olympic qualification process for the Tokyo 2020 Games starts in September. Her partner, Agatha, won the silver medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Agatha Bednarczuk at the 2017 Vienna World Championships