Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl engineered a big comeback in the quarterfinals and are one of the four men’s teams that will enter the last day of competition at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Espinho Challenge, on Sunday, targeting the gold medals.

Besides the Austrians, also made it to the semifinals of the event held at the Praia da Baía, in Portugal, Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Jakub Zdybek, Brazil’s Evandro Gonçalves/Arthur Lanci and USA’s Theo Brunner/Trevor Crabb.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Espinho Challenge live on VBTV

Brazilians and Americans will meet in the first semifinal on Sunday, starting at 11:30 local time (10:30 UTC), with Austrians and Polish battling for the second spot in the final one hour later. The bronze medal match will begin at 16:30 local time (15:30 UTC), followed by the gold medal match, at 17:30 (16:30 UTC).

Horst, 40, and Hörl, 31, dropped the first set of the quarterfinals to Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik, but showed an impressive ability to react, turning things around and winning the match 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 15-8) to book their tickets to the semifinals of the event.

“I’m a little bit tired, but very, very happy,” Hörl said. “The deep sand the conditions here a real challenge, but I think we managed things well. We had a great comeback in the second set and I’m very happy that we were able to move forward.”

The Austrians, who before the duel with the Ukrainians had eliminated the home team of João Pedrosa and Hugo Campos with a straight-set (21-19, 21-18) victory in the Round of 16, will now have a chance to secure their second medal in the 2023 Beach Pro Tour season, following a third-place finish at the Saquarema Challenge, in Brazil, in April. To do that, they will need to beat Kantor and Zdybek, who defeated them in pool play on Friday.

“They’re a really good team,” Horst reflected. “This match in the semifinals will be much different than the one in pool play, but they’re having a great tournament and will be really tough opponents. We played a lot of matches last week in Gstaad and a lot more this week, so we’re a little bit tired, but we’ll do our best to win.”

Beach Pro Tour Espinho Challenge - Match Schedule and Results

Their next opponents in Espinho, Kantor and Zdybek also had to produce a dramatic 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-13) victory in the quarterfinals - over Lithuanian qualifiers Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas - to secure their first semifinal appearance in just their second event as partners. Earlier, in the Round of 16, the Europeans topped Australians Thomas Hodges and Zach Schubert in straight sets (21-17, 21-17).

Brazilians Evandro and Arthur had the longest journey among all four semifinalists in Portugal, as the second day of the main draw included three matches for them. The two first got on the court early in the morning, in the Round of 18, where they overcame Thailand’s Pithak Tipjan and Poravid Taovato in straight sets (21-16, 21-18).

A few hours later, in the Round of 16, the South Americans upset Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen also in two sets (22-20, 21-18). Their last step towards their fourth semifinal appearance in eight Beach Pro Tour events as partners was another two-set (21-14, 21-13) triumph, this time against USA’s Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk in the quarterfinals.

“We’ve been getting a lot of support from Brazilians who live here and also from the Portuguese people,” Evandro, who had a fourth-place finish in Espinho in 2018, commented. “Having three matches today, their energy was really important to keep us going and motivated. I always like playing here in Espinho and am grateful that I’ve been able to have another good result this time. We’re working hard to qualify for the World Championship and hopefully we’ll be able to do it.”

The Brazilians will have another American duo in their path in the semifinals in Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb, who advanced with a pair of solid performances, sweeping (21-17, 21-10) compatriots Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in the Round of 16 and downing Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira also in straight sets (21-17, 23-21) in the quarterfinals.

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