Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Leo Dillier were the lowest seeded team to win their pool in Friday’s main draw action of the men’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Dubai as 18 of the 24 participating pairs made their way to the knockout stage of the tournament.

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Swiss qualifiers Heidrich and Dillier, playing in the main draw as seed 22, had to persevere through two three-setters to emerge on top of the Pool C standings. In their pool semifinal match, they lost the first set to third-seeded Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat deep into overtime, but then came back to celebrate a 2-1 (23-25, 21-17, 15-12) upset of the French opponents. The pool final offered an all-Swiss affair, in which Heidrich and Dillier snatched a 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-11) victory over compatriots Quentin Metral and Yves Haussener as both duos advanced to the playoff stage. Also progressing in the tournament were Krou and Gauthier-Rat, who also came back from a set down in the third place match, but grabbed a 2-1 (15-21, 21-14, 15-8) win over USA’s Logan Webber and Evan Cory.

There were plenty of upsets in Pool D too, with the two lowest seeded teams coming in from Thursday’s qualifiers and making it to the first place match. 16th-seeded Zachery Schubert and Thomas Hodges of Australia delivered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) sweep of ninth-seeded Americans Chase Budinger and Troy Field, and 21st-seeded Brazilians Evandro Oliveira and Vinicius Freitas were even more emphatic against the other US pair in the pool, Dubai 1 winners and pool leaders Andrew Benesh and Miles Partain, to beat them by 2-0 (21-14, 21-13). The Aussies then defeated the Brazilians by a narrow 2-1 (22-20, 20-22, 15-13) to top the pool standings, while in an all-American third-place match, Benesh and Partain knocked out Budinger and Field by 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 17-15).

Another qualifier duo from the States, however, dropped no sets on the way to the first place in Pool F. 19th-seeded Taylor Crabb and Paul Lotman hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-9) blowout of UAE’s Amer Almarzooqi and Abduljalil Alblooshi and then cruised on to a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) win over 18th-seeded Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos of Portugal, who had upset seventh-seeded Germans Robin Sowa and Lukas Pfretzschner by 2-0 (21-19, 21-17). The Germans stayed in the tournament as the third-placed team after a 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) clean slate against Amer and Abduljalil.

Other than losing a set in their first Pool A match, top seeds David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden allowed no surprises on the first day of main draw action. 20-year-old Ahman and 21-year-old Hellvig, reigning European champions, started off with a 2-1 (21-13, 19-21, 15-7) victory over German qualifiers Paul Henning and Sven Winter and followed up with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) success over Australia’s Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis to win the pool. The third place went to Mexico’s Juan Virgen and Miguel Sarabia, who also beat the Germans after a tie-breaker by 2-1 (21-13, 19-21, 15-11) to advance.

“It feels really good! We had two tough games today, but we played really well, especially in the last one,” Hellvig and Ahman told Volleyball World. “We knew it would be a tough game, but our side-out was really good. We gave them almost no free balls and we also got a few digs and a couple of blocks and that made the match. We have been playing really well lately. The bronze in the Maldives was really good. It’s always great to be on the podium and you have to be happy, if you get there, of course. We will try to keep it up. It’s been going quite fast for us, especially with winning the European Championship when there were no expectations to do that, but we’ll try our best to keep on going.”

Second-seeded Marco Viscovich and Alex Ranghieri also lived up to the expectations and topped the standings in Pool B. After an extended first set, the Italians mastered a 2-0 (28-26, 21-14) shutout of Spain’s Javier Huerta and Alejandro Huerta and then battled back from a set behind in the pool final against Argentina’s Tomas Capogrosso and Nicolas Capogrosso to win by 2-1 (16-21, 23-21, 15-12). The Huertas took third after a tough 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-13) victory over Türkiye’s Hasan Huseyin Mermer and Safa Urlu.

Brazil’s Pedro Solberg and Arthur Mariano, Dubai 1 bronze medallists and Dubai 2 fifth seeds, won the Pool E race with the other three Italian teams in the tournament. They claimed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-13) victory over Jakob Windisch and Gianluca Dal Corso in their first match and then emerged victorious from the three-set duel with Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi to finish in first place after a 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-8) comeback. Davide Benzi and Carlo Bonifazi also needed three sets in the third place game against compatriots Windisch and Dal Corso to celebrate with a 2-1 (21-14, 17-21, 15-13) win.

Dubai 2nd Challenge: Schedule and results

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