The Canadians won the World Championships final rematch to top the Manhattan Beach Open

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Sarah and Melissa extended their great form with a title in California (Photocredit: AVP)

Four gold medals in the last six tournaments. That’s what Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes have accomplished in the last two months. And there were some big ones among those, including the World Championships and the Vienna Major.

The unstoppable Canadians stroke again this weekend and took home the prestigious Manhattan Beach Open, arguably the most important tournament of the American AVP, with a 28-26, 16-21, 16-14 victory over April Ross and Alix Klineman.

It was the fourth time the teams met in a final this season and the second victory for the Canadians, who also topped the Americans in the World Championship gold medal match in Hamburg. For their victory in California, they’ll have their names eternized at the Manhattan Beach Pier.

“Playing them brings the best out of us,” Melissa said afterwards. “They're amazing and having each other at the other side of the net makes both teams play at their absolute best because this is the only way we have a chance of winning it. Today we got together when we needed to and I'm very proud of it."

The teams of Sara Hughes/Brandie Wilkerson and Terese Cannon/Kelly Reeeves both finished third.

Priddy and Crabb won the first tournament they played together (Photocredit: AVP)

In the men’s tournament, the temporary partnership of Trevor Crabb and Reid Priddy, who joined forces due to the injury of Crabb’s regular partner Tri Bourne, took the title after a 21-15, 21-19 win over Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger.

It was the first AVP title for both Crabb, who had lost his first seven finals in the Tour, and Priddy, who transitioned to the beach in 2017 after a successful indoor career, which included a gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

“I’ve been searching for my first AVP for a while and it’s hard to tell how I feel now,” Crabb reflected. “If I had to pick just one to win, it would be Manhattan, so it couldn’t get any better than this. And I’d like to thank Reid for coming in and joining me this week.”

Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena and the new team of Billy Kolinske and Eric Beranek both finished in third place.

Champions crowned in Germany and Austria

Two of the most important National Tours in Europe also had tournaments happening this week as Germany and Austria hosted events. In Kühlungs-Born, the final stop of the German Tour before the National Championships, Kim Behrens and Cinja Tillmann secured the women’s title, followed by Leonie Klinke/Lisa-Sophie Kotzan and Melanie Gernert/Elena Kiesling.

The Poniewaz twins Bennet and David triumphed in the men’s tournament after they defeated Jonathan Erdmann and Sven Winter in the gold medal match. Armin Dollinger and Simon Kulzer finished third.

The medalists of the German Tour stop in Kühlungs-Born (Photocredit: Die Techniker Beach Tour)

In Austria, the tournament took place in St. Johann in Tirol and Valerie Teufl and Eva Freiberger were the winners among the women. Julia Radl and Katharina Almer were second while Stephanie Wiesmyr and Anja Dörfler finished third.

Moritz Kindl and Felix Friedl came out on top of the men’s event as they downed Czechs Jan Dumek and Vaclav Bercik in the final. Third place went to Florian Schnetzer and Lorenz Petutschnig.