Even Bryce Mayer & Tyler Penberthy of the Virgin Islands, who joined the main draw from the qualifications as lucky losers, started their main draw campaign with victory and are certain to play at least two more matches in Mexico. In the longest-running game of Thursday’s first leg of pool play, the 26th-seeded team squeezed out a nail-biting 2-1 (22-24, 21-17, 18-16) victory over seventh-seeded Paul Henning & Lukas Pfretzschner of Germany in Pool G after a full one hour on the court. Penberthy won the blocking contest with Henning by 9-8 in stuffs, while the German emerged as the best scorer of the match with 35 points, against 34 for Penberthy. On Friday, the pair from the Virgin Islands will take on Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos for the first place in the pool and a direct ticket to the eighthfinals. The Portuguese duo also started off with a tie-breaker win over USA’s Hagen Smith & Ryan Ierna.
Two Australian qualifier teams won the first-leg matches in Pool E, both after tie-breaker battles. 28th-seeded Thomas Hodges & Ben Hood outlasted fifth-seeded Brazilians Adrielson Dos Santos & Arthur Da Silva in a 2-1 (21-15, 12-21, 15-13) rollercoaster, with seven kill blocks from Hodges towards a match-high 24 points, while 21st-seeded D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse delivered a 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-11) upset of 12th-seeded Americans Evan Cory & Derek Bradford to set up an all-Australian clash for the top of the pool standings.
Two tie-breaker upsets marked the first leg of matches in Pool H as well. 24th-seeded Latvian qualifiers Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics came back from a set down to celebrate a 2-1 (16-21, 22-20, 15-9) win over ninth-seeded Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel, while 25th-seeded Austrians Julian Horl & Laurenc Grossig disappointed the Mexican crowd with a hard-fought 2-1 (24-22, 19-21, 15-11) victory over eighth-seeded home favorites Antonio Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala, 2025 FIVB U21 World Championship bronze medalists in Puebla.
