Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak continued their winning streak at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha. In their only match on Friday, the Poles came back from a set down to claim their third victory in Pool A and a spot among the last six of the tournament. Top-seeded Anders Mol and Christian Sorum also improved to 3-0 and secured advancement beyond the pool phase of the competition, after winning both their games on the second competition day in Pool B.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha live on Volleyball TV.

After a catastrophic first set against Italian wild cards Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri, Bryl and Losiak took a good grip on the second to level the match. They kept the pressure in the tie-breaker and took advantage of the many opponent errors to celebrate a 2-1 (13-21, 21-16, 15-9) victory, their third at the tournament, overcoming Ranghieri’s eight kill blocks and three aces towards a match-high 22 points. The Poles lead the pool standings and the Italians are the only ones who have a shot at taking over the first place after the remaining games on Saturday.

“I think we started the first set too slow, but in the second we were more aggressive and put more pressure from the service line,” Losiak told Volleyball World. “It was a really tough game, but we won and we are happy. I hope this will be a good tournament for us.”

“I think the second day was a good day for us,” Bryl added. “We have to keep going. Tomorrow we have a match against Qatar and I hope we will play well, win and advance directly to the semifinals.”

Carambula and Ranghieri stand third on a 2-1 win-loss record after delivering a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) upset of top-seeded Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan earlier on Friday, with Ranghieri making the difference with five kill blocks.

Right above them, on 2-2, but with no games remaining, are Andre Stein and George Wanderley. The Brazilians bounced back from their two losses on the first competition day with two wins on the second, saving a chance to qualify for the quarterfinals. First, they managed a 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-13) comeback against Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt, keeping the Chilean cousins winless and putting them out of contention for the playoffs. Andre hammered out 25 points in that match, including six blocks and three aces. Then, the South Americans mastered a convincing 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) sweep of Cherif and Ahmed, with another five kill blocks from Andre.

Reigning world and Olympic champions Mol and Sorum had a relatively easy start on Friday. In a remake of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship final last year in Rome, the Norwegians outplayed Brazil’s Renato Lima and Vitor Felipe on all counts and, contributing 17 points apiece, mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) win.

Their next match was way tougher and it took them three sets to overcome the resistance of third-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen. The Dutch pair edged forward by capitalising on Meeuwsen’s spiking success to win the first set, but then it was all about Mol and his fantastic blocking, which produced 10 stuffs over the next two sets on the way to a 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-12) turnaround. Brouwer finished the match as the top scorer on 23 points, followed by Mol on 22.

Before that, the Dutch delivered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) shutout of Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, with six kill blocks from Meeuwsen. They finished their pool campaign on a 2-2 win-loss record and will have to wait for the results of the remaining Pool B games on Saturday to know whether or not they make the quarterfinals. Both the Czech duo (currently fourth on 1-2) and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava (third on 2-1) have a shot at pushing them out of the way. In their only game on Friday, the Italians outplayed Renato and Vitor Felipe on the way to a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) win and left the opponents winless and out of contention for the playoffs.

Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2022 Finals in Doha: schedule and results

Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2022 Finals in Doha: current pool standings

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Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour

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