Two teams from the United States and one from each of Austria and Brazil remain in contention for the men's title of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Saquarema Challenge as the tournament enters its fourth and final day on Sunday.

The semifinals at the Campo de Aviação are set, with Austrians Julian Hörl and Alexander Horst facing Americans Chase Budinger at 11:30 local time (14:30 UTC) and Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci meeting USA’s Andy Benesh and Miles Partain one hour later. The gold medal match in Saquarema is scheduled for 17:30 local time (20:30 UTC), two hours before the bronze medal match.

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A three-time Olympian, the 40-year-old Horst and his 31-year-old partner Hörl have won four straight matches after dropping their opener in Saquarema on Friday. On Saturday, the Austrians knocked out La Paz Challenge winners Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira of Spain with a two-set (23-21, 21-19) victory in the Round of 16 and survived a three-set (25-23, 19-21, 15-11) battle with Americans Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner in the quarterfinals.

“It feels really good that we managed to advance today,” Horst commented. “We started the tournament really badly and that made our path so much longer. We fought back yesterday and today we played really great volleyball. Herrera and Gavira are still one of the best teams in the world for me and we did really well against them. I’m very proud that we are in the semifinals.”

Hörl and Horst had great success in Futures tournaments in 2022, their first year as partners, winning gold in Klaipeda and Baden, but were yet to make it to the semifinals at the Challenge level. The Europeans had a difficult start in 2023, finishing 17^th at both the La Paz Challenge and the Tepic Elite16 and ninth at the Itapema Challenge, and are now ready to fight for a medal in Brazil.

“Another day, another match,” Hörl added. “I’m really looking forward to it. It was an exhausting journey to get here with several matches in two days, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun tomorrow.”

Beach Pro Tour Saquarema Challenge - Match Schedule & Results

Budinger, 34, and Evans, 33, started the Saquarema Challenge in the qualifier and remain undefeated after six matches. The Pool E winners continued in great form at the start of the elimination round, securing a 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-7) victory over Australians Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett in the Round of 16 and beating Dutch Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers in their two-set (21-14, 23-21) quarterfinal matchup. It’s the first semifinal appearance for the Americans, who are playing just their second tournament as partners this week in Brazil.

Playing in just their fifth tournament together, Partain, 21, and Benesh, 28, are set to make their second semifinal appearance in Saquarema after they efficiently navigated a difficult elimination bracket on Saturday. The Americans handled up-and-coming Australians Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert in three sets (21-15, 18-21, 18-16) in the Round of 16 and had a more dominant performance in the quarterfinals, where they topped Polish Piotr Kantor and Maciej Rudol in straight sets (21-16, 21-19).

The only Brazilian team to remain in contention for the title in Saquarema, top-seeded Evandro and Arthur, were winning their all-Brazilian Round of 16 duel with Saymon Barbosa and Vinicius Freitas when their opponents had to abandon the match due to an injury. In the quarterfinals, the South Americans dominated Italians Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi to a straight-set (21-17, 21-16) victory. After finishing fourth at the La Paz Challenge, they will try to secure their first medals as partners in front of their home fans.

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