Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Leo Dillier, seeded 22nd in the men’s main draw at the second Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Dubai, will play against top-seeded Swedes David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig in one of the semifinals on Sunday, starting at 11:30 local time (07:30 UTC). Taylor Crabb and Paul Lotman of the United States will take on Argentina’s Tomas Capogrosso and Nicolas Capogrosso at 12:30 (08:30) in the other duel for a spot in the final. For three of these teams, it will be the first time they play in a Beach Pro Tour semifinal.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Challenge events in Dubai live on Volleyball TV.

Heidrich and Dillier, whose road in the tournament started from Thursday’s qualifier, extended their winning streak to six consecutive matches and made it to their first Beach Pro Tour semifinal. Their previous best result was the ninth place they got at the Maldives Challenge. The Swiss team started Saturday’s playoffs with a round-of-16 victory over seventh-seeded Germans Robin Sowa and Lukas Pfretzschner. Heidrich and Dillier dropped the first set, but recovered in the next two to claim a 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-12) win. They were much quicker in their quarterfinal encounter with Australia’s Zachery Schubert and Thomas Hodges and outpaced the opponents on all counts to snatch a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) victory, their first straight-setter of the competition.

“It feels really great! We came through the qualifications, always in three sets, and now we are happy!” 21-year-old defender Dillier told Volleyball World. “We go from tournament to tournament, getting better and better, and it pays off now, at the end of the season. I am really happy to see us play like that. Tomorrow we’ll go for gold, which would be really special. We’ll see how it works out...”

“Our first match today was a really close three-setter and the tank was empty. I was a little bit scared if we had enough energy left for this game now, but it worked,” Heidrich added. “Now that we are here, tomorrow we will be under pressure, not from outside, but from ourselves, to go all the way.”

Young Swedish jump-setters Ahman and Hellvig made it to their third Challenge-level final four on the Beach Pro Tour, after their gold in Kusadasi and their bronze in the Maldives. They achieved two straight-set victories in Saturday’s knockouts. First, they swept Spain’s Javier Huerta and Alejandro Huerta by 2-0 (21-18, 21-18), and then, they delivered a 2-0 (28-26, 21-16) quarterfinal shutout of Italy’s Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi, outplaying the opponents on all counts, but most significantly in attack.

19th-seeded Crabb and Lotman, who teamed up for the trip to the Emirates, improved on their fifth place at the first Challenge tournament in Dubai and secured at least a fourth place finish in the second. Third-seeded Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat of France were the first hurdle for the Americans on Thursday. In a round of 16 game, Crabb and Lotman produced a hard-fought 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) upset. It was even harder for them in the quarterfinals as they met the first tournament’s bronze medallists Pedro Solberg and Arthur Mariano of Brazil, but they overcame that hurdle in straight sets again, despite being pushed deep into overtime in the second. They capitalised on the abundant opponent errors to celebrate a 2-0 (21-18, 27-25) victory.

Capogrosso and Capogrosso, on the other hand, had to persevere through two three-setters in their playoff encounters to make it to their first Tour semifinal. After a 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 15-11) comeback win over Australia’s Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis in the round of 16, 27-year-old Olympian Nicolas and 20-year-old Tomas made it to their first-ever quarterfinal. Then, the 11th-seeded Argentineans managed a 2-1 (21-10, 19-21, 15-7) upset of second-seeded Italians Marco Viscovich and Alex Ranghieri, getting back at them for the tie-breaker loss in their pool encounter on Friday.

Dubai 2nd Challenge: Schedule and results

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Dubai 2nd Challenge
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube