The women's pools for the World Championships are set!

The Foro Italico in Rome will host the World Championships from June 10 to 19, before the best teams will meet in Vienna from August 2 to 7 for the A1 CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup. We took a look at the women's pools and have an analysis for you!

In the groups everyone plays against everyone. The two top-seeded teams after the group stage and the four best third-placed teams from the 12 pools will advance to the knockout stage. We already took a closer look at the men's pools in a previous article, now it's the ladies' turn:

Pool A: Stam/Schoon, Gallay/Pereyra, Rivas Zapata/Chris, Williams/Nuñez

Pool A has a clear favorite in young Dutch Stam/Schoon, who have already delivered strongly this year and secured an Elite16 title in Rosarito next to other solid performances. The rest of the group is dominated by teams from South America, who will probably fight for the second spot to advance from the group stage among themselves.

Pool B: Duda/Ana Patricia, Hermannova/Stochlova, Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig, Wang/Xia

In Group B, the newly formed team Duda/Ana Patricia, who finished twice in the top ten at Elite 16 tournaments so far, will be especially interesting to watch. The two were projected to have a great future, but so far they have not yet been able to show their full potential. Duda will meet old acquaintances at the World Championships, as she already played the Chinese at the Olympics, where Wang/Xia won the match and later their group. In the end they got eliminated in the round of 16 by Ana Patricia. The Chinese only play a few matches on the World Tour, so it is difficult to assess their current form. With Hermannova/Stochlova and Plesiutschnig/Schützenhöfer, two European teams are represented in Pool B. This group promises a lot of excitement, a lot can happen here, especially the form of the Brazilians will be decisive.

Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig gave us an analysis of their pool: "We certainly got a very, very strong group, and with Duda/Ana Patricia definitely also a favorite for the title in the group. The Czechs have not even been playing together for a year, but they have performed very well in recent tournaments and even took 5th place in Kusadasi. They are certainly not to be underestimated. The Chinese are also a strong team, who have already competed at the Olympics and have always played well on the World Tour. Due to Corona, the team hasn't played much and that's why they are ranked so far behind. The group is quite challenging. Our first goal is to make the group, we hope to get two wins here so we can advance directly to the intermediate round - but of course three wins would be best."

Pool H: Clancy/Mariafe, Cannon/Sponcil, Leila/Lidy, Farida/Doaa

In Pool H there are no less than 5 Olympians present: Clancy/Mariafe won the silver medal at the Olympics and Sarah Sponcil also has good memories of last year with a ninth place in Tokyo. It will be interesting to see how Sponcil will perform with her new partner Terese Cannon. Leila/Lidy qualified via the South American World-Championship Qualifier and managed to secure a ninth place at the Olympics as well. For Farida/Doaa from Egypt Rome won’t be their first World Championships, nevertheless they are the underdogs in the pool.

Pool J: Pavan/Melissa, Laboureur/Schulz, Placette/Richard, Stevens/Johnson

In Pool J we find the defending champions of the 2019 World Championships, Pavan/Melissa. In 2021, the two narrowly missed out on the Olympic medal ranks. Laboureur/Schulz on the other hand surprisingly won the German Championships last year, which shows what they can achieve in a strong German field. They also won the silver medal in Doha at the Challenge tournament this year. With Placette/Richard a second European team has been drawn in Group J. The young Australians Stevens/Johnson complete the pool. In all likelihood, the Canadians and Germans will top the group here.

It's difficult to define a group of favorites in the women's competition. Many teams perform at a similar level and especially in the top field, anyone can beat anyone. Besides Stam/Schoon, there are also Heidrich/Vergé-Dépré, Kravcenoka/Graudina, Duda/Ana Patricia, the winners of the A1 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championships 2021 in Vienna, Hüberli/Brunner, Clancy/Mariafe, as well as the defending champions Pavan/Melissa. Especially in this competition at a World Championship everything is possible.

Games to watch

We would especially like to recommend the following teams as must-watches: Müller/Tillmann are two underdogs who have been showing off lately and even secured a gold medal at the elite16 in Ostrava coming out of the qualification. Furthermore, Talita/Rebecca are another team that promises action.