37-year-old Italian beach volleyball star Alex Ranghieri opened a new page in his successful career on Wednesday. At the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut of his new team with Manuel Alfieri, the two-time Olympian celebrated two qualification wins to advance to the Yucatan Challenge main draw in Mexico. Paris 2024 Olympian George Wanderley also made a good start with his new partner Saymon Barbosa as they were one of the four Brazilian teams successfully pushing through the qualification grind in Puerto Progreso. Another Olympian, Adrian Heidrich, did the same with new teammate Jonathan Jordan as they became one of the two Swiss duos that qualified for the 32-team main draw as well. An American pair picked up the remaining vacancy.
Beach Pro Tour
Olympic stars Ranghieri, George and Heidrich succeed in Yucatan qualifiers with new partners
Four Brazilian, two Swiss, one Italian and one American teams push through to the main draw in Mexico
Published 08:29, 20 Mar 2025
Italy’s Alex Ranghieri
- Watch the Yucatan Challenge on VBTV.
Alex Ranghieri, who competed at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, made his first Beach Pro Tour appearance with new teammate, 26-year-old Manuel Alfieri. Seeded 22nd in the Yucatan qualification bracket, the Italian duo started off with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) win over Austria’s Laurenc Grossig & Mathias Seiser and followed up with an epic 2-1 (29-27, 16-21, 16-14) victory over another Austrian opponent, the sixth-seeded pairing of four-time Olympian Alexander Horst with Laurenz Leitner.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Adrian Heidrich also started the journey with new teammate Jonathan Jordan with two wins and advanced to the main draw in Mexico. The 20th-seeded Swiss pair achieved a 2-0 (21-17, 25-23) shutout of USA’s Hagen Smith & Logan Webber in the first qualification round, before mastering a 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) upset of fourth-seeded Yannick Verberne & Leon Luini of the Netherlands.
Yves Haussener & Julian Friedli were the other Swiss team to make its way from the qualifiers to the main draw. The 14th-seeded duo hammered out a 2-0 (21-9, 21-19) win over Belgium’s Kyan Vercauteren & Joppe Van Langendonck in the first round, and then upset third-seeded Trevor Crabb & Cody Caldwell of the United States in a 2-0 (24-22, 21-7) straight-setter.
Another top international star, Brazil’s George Wanderley, who made it to the top of the FIVB World Ranking and played at the Paris 2024 Games with previous partner Andre Stein, started his new partnership with Saymon Barbosa with two qualification wins in Yucatan as well. Seeded 18th in the bracket, George & Saymon first beat Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier by 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) and then defeated USA’s Jordan Hoppe & Derek Bradford by 2-0 (21-18, 21-18).
17th-seeded Brazilians Gabriel Santiago & Felipe Alves produced a 2-0 (24-22, 21-11) upset of qualification bracket leaders Piotr Kantor & Jakub Zdybek of Poland to progress to the main draw. Before that, they also claimed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-11) victory over France’s Joadel Genevieve Gardoque & Elouan Chouikh-Barbez.
Brazil’s Adelmo Folha & Mateus Dultra, seeded 21st, achieved a difficult three-set 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 15-13) victory over Bryce Mayer & Tyler Penberthy of the US Virgin Islands in their first game, and followed up with another hard-fought three-set win over fifth-seeded Estonians Mart Tiisaar & Dimitriy Korotkov, in which they mounted a 2-1 (23-25, 21-15, 15-12) comeback.
Ninth-seeded Pedro Oliveira & Renato Lima of Brazil were the highest ranked pair to qualify. They mastered a 2-0 (21-9, 21-10) sweep of their opening match against Costa Rica’s Daniel Dyner & Jhostin Varela and a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) sweep of the deciding game against eighth-seeded compatriots Vinicius Freitas & Heitor Barbosa.
Meanwhile, 23rd-seeded Americans Timothy Brewster & Ryan Ierna were the lowest ranked team to achieve qualification to the main 32. They passed the first round on an injury withdrawal by Chile’s Vicente Droguett & Fernando Quintero, but then earned their advancement with a hard-fought 2-1 (21-17, 13-21, 16-14) victory over Israel’s Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov.
Men’s main draw action in Yucatan will serve off on Thursday afternoon at 14:00 local time (20:00 UTC).
