The World Tour Finals champions ended their 2018 season with a gold at the Brazilian Tour

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Duda and Ágatha ended the season at the top of the podium (Photocredit: CBV)

Most of the beach volleyball players of the planet have already called it a season and spent most of the last weeks enjoying their off-season, but not the Brazilians.

With the country’s 2018-2019 National Tour running until the past weekend, the nation’s top teams had to extend their time on the courts in 2018 and Ágatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa and Pedro Solberg/Bruno Schmidt were rewarded with the gold medals at the Campo Grande stop of the tournament, the third of seven scheduled to happen until next April.

Ágatha and Duda, the winners of the 2018 Beach Volleyball Major Series World Tour Finals in Hamburg back in August, had the perfect ending to their season after they defeated Ágatha’s former partner, Bárbara Seixas, and Fernanda Berti, the champions of the 2018 Fort Lauderdale Major, in straight sets (21-15, 21-12) to claim gold in Campo Grande.

“This was an unbelievable year for our team,” Duda, who took home the World Tour’s Most Outstanding Player award, said. “We’ve been trying to stay together at every moment since we joined forces and we didn’t have a good result in our last tournament, so trained twice as hard for this one. We’ve very grateful to everyone who helped us, especially our families and our coaching staff. Next season will be challenging and to end this one on top is really inspiring.”

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Reigning Brazilian champions Maria Elisa Antonelli and Carol Solberg finished after they took down the new team of Talita Antunes, who was returning to the sport after one year, and Taiana Lima also in two sets (21-18, 21-12).

Among the men, Pedro and Bruno, who reunited in May after a massive shuffle among the top Brazilian teams, won their first title together during their second stint as a team. The Rio 2016 Olympic champion and the 2008 World Tour winner topped reigning world champion Evandro Gonçalves and Vitor Felipe in three sets (21-13, 11-21, 15-12) in the gold medal match.

Pedro and Bruno celebrate their first title together since they joined forces in May (Photocredit: CBV)

“We are both very committed to our project as a team,” Pedro commented. “We’re just going to take 10 days off in December and that’s not what I expected, but the level is very high, so we have to work harder. Our results in the World Tour this year weren’t good, so we’ll make sure we’re ready to take advantage when the next opportunity comes.”

The young duo of Adrielson Silva, 21, and Eduardo Davi, 24, stepped on the podium for the first time together as they claimed bronze following a straight-set (21-18, 23-21) victory over Oscar Guimarães and Luciano Ferreira.

After three stops, Bárbara Seixas/Fernanda Berti and Adrielson/Eduardo Davi are at the top of the rankings. The Tour will resume in São Luis between January 23-27 and three additional events are scheduled until April, when the champions will be declared.