The most iconic venue of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Eiffel Tower Stadium, will feature on the opening day with two Aussie beach volleyball teams in action on centre court.
Carracher/Nicolaidis (AUS) VS Åhman/Hellvig (SWE)
Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis will be among the first teams to play on centre court, in their opening match against Swedish pair David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig.
The Swedes are currently the world’s number one ranked pair, while Izac and Mark enter the Paris Olympic Games as the lowest-seeded team, but will take confidence from their recent results, including at the Asian Volleyball Continental Cup where they earned qualification for the Games.
The teams have met only once before at the Beach Pro Tour Challenge in Dubai in October 2022, where the Swedish pair claimed the win 2-0 (21-17, 21-16).
“We’re expecting a very entertaining game. They are the world number ones, so we’re coming in as the underdogs but we’re both young teams, both play the same game of beach volleyball which is really exciting for the crowd so looking forward to a packed out arena,” Mark said.
“We’ve played them a couple of times, and trained against them a bunch. We know that on the day we’re going to have to bring our absolute best. It’s going to be a competitive game, and hopefully there’s not much in it and we can come out on top."
Watch Carracher/Nicolaidis (AUS) v Ahman/Hellvig (SWE) at 11pm AEST on Saturday 27 July LIVE and FREE on 9Now.
Clancy/Mariafe (AUS) VS Xue/X. Y. Xia (CHN)
Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar will start their Paris campaign against Chinese pair Xue/X. Y. Xia on the first day of competition.
The pairs last met in Brazil in April 2023 at the Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 where the Australians won in three sets (2:1 | 21-23, 21-15, 15-10).
Mariafe said she’s looking forward to their first game against China.
“We actually haven’t played this China team that many times, we’ve only played them once before," she said.
“We just got the win, it was a very tight, three-set game. But they’re an incredible team, and we have to make sure we bring our A-game right from the start."
Watch Clancy/Mariafe (AUS) v Xue/X. Y. Xia (CHN) at 2am AEST on Sunday 28 July LIVE and FREE on 9Now.
