An encounter between Olympic medallists Bruno Schmidt of Brazil and Taylor Sander of the United States was the highlight of the first day of the Tlaxcala Challenge event that opened the inaugural season of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in Mexico on Wednesday.

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A Rio 2016 beach volleyball Olympic champion, the 35-year-old Bruno started his partnership with 28-year-old Saymon Barbosa on the right foot at the Plaza de la Constitucion. The Brazilians defeated Sander, an indoor volleyball Olympic bronze medallist in Rio, and partner Taylor Crabb in a thrilling three-set (23-25, 29-27, 15-12) qualifier duel to secure one of the last eight main draw spots in Tlaxcala.

“Playing with an Olympic champion has always been a dream of mine,” Saymon said after the match. “I’ve worked hard for this opportunity and it’s great to be here now. Starting our partnership by advancing from the qualifier was amazing, but there are still many battles ahead of us. The fans gave us a lot of energy and made us stronger, especially in the second set, which was really close and challenging.”

The match, which saw the Brazilians deny the Americans multiple match points in the second set before winning the tie-breaker, capped off a prolific day for Bruno and Saymon, who downed Spanish pair Sergi Rene and Alejandro Huerta in straight sets (21-18, 23-21) in their first round match.

Brazil had two other teams making it to the main draw in Vitor Felipe/Renato Lima and Pedro Solberg/Arthur Lanci. The Americans, on the other hand, lamented three other eliminations with Chase Budinger and Troy Field falling in straight sets (21-12, 21-14) to Dutch team Leon Luini and Ruben Penninga, Andy Benesh and Nick Lucena losing 2-0 (27-25, 21-15) to Australians Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett and Travis Mewhirter and Tim Brewster stopped by Canadians Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing, who prevailed in two sets (21-13, 21-14).

The remaining main draw spots in Tlaxcala went to the Netherlands’ Matthew Immers/Mart van Werkhoven and Chile's Noe Aravena/Vicente Droguett.

Tlaxcala match schedule and results

The women’s qualifier in Tlaxcala also opposed two highly-accomplished beach volleyball players in Chantal Laboureur, a 32-year-old German defender who’s playing in her 100th international event in Mexico, and 29-year-old Canadian blocker Brandie Wilkerson, a Tokyo Olympian who was at the top of the world rankings in 2018.

Laboureur and 22-year-old Sarah Schulz, who are together since the second half of 2021, took advantage of their better chemistry as a team to defeat Wilkerson and new partner Sophie Bukovec 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) and advance to the main draw in the first event of the Beach Pro Tour. Earlier, they had swept (21-11, 21-8) young Latvians Varvara Brailko and Deniela Konstantinova.

“We had two good training camps in Tenerife and decided to come here one week before the start of the tournament so we could adapt to the altitude,” Laboureur said. “We could really feel it in the first days, but it’s much better now. Playing in the qualifier is always tough and we’re just very happy that we made it. Teams that advance from the qualifier typically start the main draw in good rhythm, but our focus was entirely on the qualifier, so let’s see who we play tomorrow and prepare well.”

Laboureur’s former teammate Cinja Tillmann also made it to the main draw as she and partner Svenja Muller defeated Italian sisters Viktoria and Reka Orsi Toth in straight sets (21-15, 21-10). Another pair of sisters, Canadian twins Megan and Nicole McNamara, had better luck and went through with a solid two-set (21-11, 21-11) victory over Polish team Katarzyna Kociolek and Melania Marcinowska.

Chile’s Francisca Rivas/Chris Vorpahl, the Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova/Marie-Sara Stochlova, USA’s Corinne Quiggle/Sarah Schermerhorn, Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner/Zoe Verge-Depre and Spain’s Belen Carro/Angela Lobato were the other female teams that earned the right to compete in the main draw in Tlaxcala.

The main draw starts on Thursday with 24 teams in each gender and while the women will complete their modified pool play schedule by the end of the day, the men will only play one of their two pool matches on the second day of competition in Mexico.

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