Adelmo and Mateus win thriller to make it to João Pessoa main draw

Brazilians Adelmo Folha and Mateus Dultra prevailed in the only three-setter of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour João Pessoa Elite men's qualifier on Wednesday and will play in the main draw of the event.

Besides them, another team from Brazil, two from the United States, and one from each of Argentina, Germany, Latvia and Switzerland claimed the eight remaining spots for the first Elite event of the 2026 season. Duos from Brazil and Germany also advanced as 'lucky' losers after Brazil's André Loyola/Renato Lima and Poland's Bartosz Łosiak/Michał Bryl had to withdraw due to injuries.

• Watch the João Pessoa Elite live on VBTV

Adelmo, 28, and Mateus, 24, were involved in the only match reuniting teams from the same country in the João Pessoa qualifier and recovered from a slow start to come back and take down compatriots Henrique Barros and Mateus 'Manaus' Rodrigues 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 16-14).

Their compatriots Vitor Felipe and Felipe Alves also advanced after their straight-set (21-13, 21-11) victory over Swiss Julian Friedli and Jonathan Jordan, raising the number of teams from the host country in the main draw to six.

Two American teams advance

The United States also had plenty of success in the João Pessoa men's qualifier, seeing both of their teams progress. Playing together for the first time, Trevor Crabb and Robert Harrison swept (21-15, 21-14) Spanish Nathan Matos and Pablo Pérez.

Their compatriots Cody Caldwell and Jacob La Bouliere will also play in the main draw after producing a two-set (23-21, 21-10) victory over Brazilians Vinicius Freitas and Heitor Benitto, who also advanced as 'lucky losers'.

Swiss Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier, who swept (23-21, 21-15) Brazilians Gabriel Santiago and Johann Dohmann, Latvians Ardis Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics, who downed the German Sagstetter brothers Jonas and Benedikt in two close sets (21-19, 23-21), and Germans Maximilian Just and Lui Wüst, who topped Polish Olympian Piotr Kantor and his partner Filip Lejawa 2-0 (21-14, 21-16), also earned their spots in the main draw. The Sagstetters still moved forward as 'lucky losers'.

The top-seeded team in the qualifier, the Argentine Capogrosso brothers Nicolás and Tomas advanced without playing, as there were only 15 teams entered.

Beach Pro Tour João Pessoa Elite - Match Schedule & Results

The main draw begins on Thursday, with the 24 teams split into six pools of four. The first day of matches will include a pair of encounters for each team, with 24 duels set to be held between 9:00 local time (12:00 UTC) and 20:00 (23:00 UTC).

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