Jurmala, Latvia, September 19, 2020. This summer has seen many new pairings in beach volleyball as players scramble to find a partner for the few tournaments that were still able to be held. One of the most intriguing teams so far is defensive star Florian Breer and the athletic powerhouse Marco Krattiger. They came onto everyone’s radar last week in Utrecht, where they beat out teams like Mol/Sorum, Thole/Wickler, and Samoilovs/Smedins to be crowned the “Kings of the Court”. Now the jury is still out on how much the rapid court switching style of that tournament translates to traditional beach volleyball, but so far at #EuroBeachVolley the young team from Switzerland is making a strong case, progressing to the quarter-finals. 

Despite this success, they have only been playing together for a short period. “We started playing together about two months ago. We played pretty well at King of the Court, and just beat a really good team here (Varenhorst/van de Velde). Now we want to make it to the semis,” said Florian Breer.  They will have their work cut out for them in the next round against Liamin/Myskiv, who took out home crowd favourites Samoilovs/Smedins in straight sets. 

While the pairing may look natural now, with Breer’s quickness complimenting Krattiger’s massive net presence, the team is more of a result of circumstances than anything. “My former partner Nico Beeler was injured,” Krattiger told us, “so I had some practices together (with Florian). We quickly saw it was working really well together and we have a good relationship on the court. We have the same attitude on the court, which is a big part of our success now.”

While the team is focusing on producing their best possible result right now at EuroBeachVolley, their sights are set high in the long run. They will prepare hard all winter for the Continental Cup where an Olympic spot is at stake. While both players have had success before with a U17 World Championship gold for Breer and a gold medal at the Edmonton 3-star last summer for Krattiger together with former partner Beeler, the current iteration of the team has a lot of people taking notice. Krattiger/Breer will be a team to watch out for years to come.