Men’s eighthfinal lineup shapes up in Tlaxcala

The men’s main draw action at the Tlaxcala Challenge on the 2026 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour unfolded in full swing on Friday – the second leg of pool play and the sixteenthfinal elimination round were held – to shape the match-ups for Saturday’s eighthfinals, in which the eight pool winners will be challenged by teams that pushed through the first knockouts.

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Among the eight highest seeded teams in the men’s main draw, only the top four survived Friday’s grind. Fifth-seeded Brazilians Adrielson Dos Santos & Arthur Da Silva, seventh-seeded Germans Paul Henning & Lukas Pfretzschner and eighth-seeded Mexican home favorites Antonio Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala did not make it through pool, while sixth-seeded Adelmo Folha & Mateus Dultra, also of Brazil, were knocked out in the sixteenthfinals.

Meanwhile, three pairs that started their Tlaxcala campaigns in Wednesday’s qualifications – D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse of Australia, Cody Caldwell & Jacob La Bouliere of the United States, and lucky losers Bryce Mayer & Tyler Penberthy of the Virgin Islands – are still in contention and ready to fight on for their spots in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Potts & Pearse even topped their Pool E after a 2-0 (23-21, 21-18) win over Australian compatriots Thomas Hodges & Ben Hood, who also arose from the qualifiers. 21^st-seeded Potts & Pearse are now awaiting second-seeded Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier of Switzerland, who lost the Pool B final, but recovered with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) shutout of ninth-seeded Israelis Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov in the first elimination round.

29^th-seeded American qualifiers Caldwell & La Bouliere finished Pool D runners-up and went on to produce a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) sweep of their sixteenthfinal against Germany’s Maximilian Just & Lui Wust. They will now take on Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos, seeded 10^th, who won Pool G after two tie-breaker victories including a 2-1 (19-21, 21-14, 15-8) comeback against Mayer & Penberthy of the Virgin Islands in the pool final.

The 26^th-seeded duo from the Caribbean, who joined the main draw from the qualifications as lucky losers, bounced back with a nail-biting 2-1 (21-16, 14-21, 18-16) win over Poland’s Piotr Kantor & Filip Lejawa, with the help of nine kill blocks from Penberthy, and moved on to an eighthfinal encounter with Austria’s Julian Horl & Laurenc Grossig. The 25^th-seeded Austrians topped Pool H after squeezing out a dramatic 2-0 (24-22, 24-22) victory over Latvian qualifiers Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics in the pool final.

Top-seeded Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson of Sweden and fourth-seeded Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher will meet up in the highest-profile eighthfinal clash. While the rising Swedish stars, silver medalists of the 2025 FIVB World Championship, cruised through their matches in Pool A, the Aussies bounced back from their opening loss to Caldwell & La Bouliere with a 2-0 (23-21, 21-17) win over Paraguayan qualifiers Gonzalo Melgarejo & Giuliano Massare in the Pool D survival match, and followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) sweep of their sixteenthfinal against Bedritis & Rincevics.

Saturday’s eighthfinal program will also offer an all-Argentinean battle between third-seeded Tomas Capogrosso & Nicolas Capogrosso and 11^th-seeded Juan Amieva & Maciel Bueno, an all-American clash between 22^nd-seeded Timothy Brewster & Logan Webber, who won Pool F, and 12^th-seeded Evan Cory & Derek Bradford, and two all-European encounters – Switzerland’s Julian Friedli & Jonathan Jordan against Germany’s Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter, and Netherlands’ Leon Luini & Matthew Immers against Austria’s Alexander Horst & Paul Pascariuc.

Saturday’s men’s program in Tlaxcala will serve off at 09:00 local time (15:00 UTC). After the eighthfinal round, the quarterfinals will also be played on the penultimate competition day.

Beach Pro Tour Tlaxcala Challenge: schedule and results

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