France’s Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat may have been wondering why they had to fly all the way to Australia to play against other French teams. However, after a series of three victories against teams from their country, the sixth-seeded pair will finally get to meet some of the locals in Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event in Torquay.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Torquay Challenge event live on Volleyball TV.

After shutting out compatriots Julien Lyneel and Remi Bassereau in their pool on Thursday, Krou and Gauthier-Rat topped the Pool F standings with another straight-set victory, 2-0 (21-12, 22-20), over fellow Frenchmen Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar on Friday morning. They then faced yet another French pair in the round of 16 in the evening, when they showed no mercy and hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) blowout of Calvin Aye and Quincy Aye with Krou producing an impressive eight kill blocks in the match.

A quarterfinal encounter against top-seeds Christopher McHugh and Paul Burnett of Australia will certainly make Krou and Gauthier-Rat’s trip more international. The Aussies recovered from a surprising three-set defeat at the hands of bottom-seeded Czechs Jan Dumek and Jiri Sedlak on Thursday with a tough 2-1 (24-22, 15-21, 15-11) win over England’s Issa Batrane and Frederick Bialokoz. They took third place in Pool A to stay alive in the tournament.

In the round of 16, McHugh and Burnett survived yet another tie-breaker match and gained a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-12) victory over Israel’s Eylon Elazar and Netanel Amiram Ohana, who had, in turn, surprised third-seeded Italian Olympians Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi with a 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 15-11) comeback win for the first place in Pool C. Burnett and McHugh scored 24 and 23 points, respectively, against the Israelis.

Lupo and Rossi, on the other hand, advanced to the quarterfinals after coming out on the winning end of another difficult three-setter. With 25 points in attack from Lupo and five kill blocks from Rossi, the Italians outplayed England’s Javier Bello and Joaquin Bello on the way to a 2-1 (21-16, 16-21, 15-12) win.

Australia’s Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert will take on Lupo and Rossi for a spot in the semis. On Friday, the second-seeded home team first mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) sweep of the Bello brothers in the Pool B final and then claimed a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) quarterfinal victory over Lyneel and Bassereau.

Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos, who started their Torquay campaign from Wednesday’s qualifiers and lost their first pool match on Thursday, were the only team that won as many as three matches on Friday to secure their place among the quarterfinalists. The 10th-seeded Portuguese team first mounted a 2-1 (15-21-18, 15-8) comeback against Australia’s James Takken and Solomon Bushby to finish third in Pool C. After that they had a round of 18 encounter with Pithak Tipjan and Poravid Taovato and produced a 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) shutout of the Thai pair.

At the end of the day, Pedrosa and Campos hammered out another impressive comeback from a set down to defeat Spain’s Javier Huerta and Alejandro Huerta by 2-1 (20-22, 21-16, 15-12) and move forward to a quarterfinal meeting with fifth-seeded Australians Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis. In that round of 16 game, Pedrosa piled up 26 points, including five blocks and an ace, while Campos aced four times towards an 18-point match tally.

Carracher and Nicolaidis forfeited the match for first place in Pool E to Switzerland’s Quentin Metral and Yves Haussener, but then squeezed out a 2-1 (21-16, 12-21, 15-12) rollercoaster victory over the Czech Republic’s Dumek and Sedlak in the round of 16, despite a solid blocking effort from Sedlak, who claimed 10 stuffs in the match. Carracher scored three blocking points of his own towards the match high of 27 points total.

Metral and Haussener also progressed to the quarterfinals after mastering a 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) sweep of Austria’s Christoph Dressler and Maximilian Trummer. Metral’s seven kill blocks were key to the result. The eighth-seeded Swiss duo will face another pair of Italian Olympians - Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri - in a battle to qualify for the final four.

Fourth-seeded Carambula and Ranghieri persevered through a three-set battle with France’s Aye and Aye to win by 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-10) and top the Pool D standings. In the round of 16, the Italians delivered a convincing 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) clean slate against another French pairing, that of 17-year-old Canet and 18-year-old Rotar, to reserve their spot among the last eight.

Both the quarterfinals and the semifinals of the men’s tournament are included in the competition programme for Saturday.

Torquay Challenge: Schedule and results

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Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Torquay Challenge
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