Top-seeded teams at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Rio de Janeiro showed resilience and experience on Friday as they stormed through the round of 18 after faltering early in group play.
Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, ranked number one worldwide, dominated Brazil’s Andre Stein and Renato Lima with a convincing 2-0 win (21-11, 21-15). The Norwegians will now face a challenging quarterfinal clash against second-seeded Dutch pair Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot.
Olympic bronze medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar, seeded third, methodically dispatched Czech duo Tadeas Trousil and Jiri Sedlak in straight sets (21-14, 21-18). Their next battle will be against Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots.
Other results from the day include:
- Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde and Alexander Brouwer (seeded fifth) defeated Switzerland's Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier and are set to take on France’s Teo Rotar and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat.
- Cuba’s Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo caused an upset by eliminating Argentina’s fourth-seeded Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso in a tight 2-1 contest. Their reward is a matchup with Austria’s Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger.
- Brazilian qualifiers George Wanderley and Saymon Barbosa edged out Norway’s Mathias Berntsen and Hendrik Mol in a close 2-1 match and now look ahead to facing American Olympians Miles Evans and Chase Budinger.
- Australians Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher breezed past Americans Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh in straight sets. The Aussies now face a major challenge against sixth-seeded Brazilians Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Mariano Lanci.
The tournament intensifies on Saturday, beginning at 09:00 local time with the round of 12, quickly followed by the quarterfinal stage as the top squads continue their hunt for Elite16 glory.
For full match results and schedule updates, visit the official tournament page on Volleyball World.
