Teams from host country Brazil, Norway and Austria remain in contention for the men’s title of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event held in Uberlandia after pool play was completed at Praia Clube on Friday.

Saturday's four quarterfinal duels in Uberlandia will have Norway's Anders Mol/Christian Sørum facing Austria's Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst, Brazil's Andre Loyola/George Wanderley playing against Austria's Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller, Norway's Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen meeting Brazil's Pedro Solberg/Arthur Lanci and the all-Brazilian duel between Evandro Goncalves/Vinicius Freitas and Vitor Felipe/Renato Lima.

The semifinals will also be played on Saturday while the medal matches will conclude the tournament on Sunday.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Uberlandia live on Volleyball TV.

The winners of April’s Itapema Challenge, FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship bronze medallists Andre and George were one of three teams to win their three pool matches in Uberlandia and finished first in Pool C.

After securing a win on Thursday, the Brazilians secured two more triumphs on Friday, beating Hörl and Horst 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-12) in the morning and dominating Turkish pair Safa Urlu and Hasan Mermer to a two-set (21-13, 21-19) victory in the afternoon.

“Pool play was a little bit challenging for us because we had never played any of these teams before,” Andre told Volleyball World. “But despite that, I think we did pretty well. We have some areas of our game that we know we need to improve, but our defensive system was very efficient and that’s good. We’ve had some difficulties, but have always been able to overcome them.”

Heading into the quarterfinals, the Brazilians, who are currently placed fifth in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings, will try to return to the semifinals for the first time since the World Championships, in June. Since then, Andre and George have finished 25th and 13th at Elite16 events in Gstaad, Switzerland, and Hamburg, Germany.

“It’s the most important part of the tournament, so we can’t hold anything back,” George added. “At the Elite16 level, every team is strong and capable of creating problems, so we need to make sure we bring our best game in order to make it to the semifinals.”

Uberlandia Elite16 - Match Schedule and Results

Reigning Olympic and world champions Mol and Sørum also went undefeated in the first stage of the tournament. The Beach Volley Vikings made it to the quarterfinals as the top duo in Pool B after they defeated Seidl and Waller in three sets (18-21, 21-15, 15-12) and Uruguayans Hans Hannibal and Marco Cairus in a two-set (21-19, 21-17) match on Friday.

Pool D's undefeated winners were Brazilian wildcards Evandro and Vinicius. The two had won both of their Thursday matches and confirmed the top spot in the pool with a sweep (21-15, 21-14) of Mexicans Juan Virgen and Miguel Sarabia on Friday.

Pool A had a triple tie at the top between Mol/Berntsen, Vitor/Renato and Austria’s Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz. The Norwegians, who started the day on Friday in third place, jumped to the top after their two-set (21-16, 21-16) victory over the Austrians.

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Uberlandia Elite16
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