Homecourt advantage played a factor in the first day of the main draw of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Espinho Challenge as three teams from Europe were among the six pool winners in the men’s tournament on Friday at the Praia da Baía.

Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Jakub Zdybek, Norway’s Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava joined two duos from the United States and one from Brazil to top their pools in the Portuguese event and secure a spot in the Round of 16.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Espinho Challenge live on VBTV

Pool E had an all-European ‘final’, with Kantor and Zdybek topping Austrians Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl in straight sets (21-13, 21-11). The Poles are playing just their second Beach Pro Tour event as partners and are coming from a fifth-place finish at the Jurmala Challenge last month.

In their first match at the Espinho Challenge, the Poles succeeded against another European team, prevailing over Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik in the tie-breaker (21-18, 18-21, 15-12).

Beach Pro Tour Espinho Challenge - Match Schedule and Results

Mol and Bertnsen had an equally complicated journey to win Pool B, which started with a close two-set (22-20, 21-18) victory over Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira. Later, the Norwegians returned to the sand and overcame Americans Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk in the tie-breaker (19-21, 21-11, 15-12).

Italians Nicolai and Cottafava had a solid day in Pool F, winning both of their matches in straight sets. The Europeans started the day with a comfortable 2-0 (21-12, 21-11) win over Thai qualifiers Poravid Taovato and Pithak Tipjan. Later, playing under some rain on the centre court, the bronze medalists of the 2022 Beach Pro Tour Finals came back from a difficult start to beat the home duo of João Pedrosa and Hugo Campos also in straight sets (26-24, 21-16).

The United States were the only country to have multiple pool winners in the men’s tournament in Espinho. Among them were Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, who finished first in Pool D with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-9) victory over Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Athur Lanci and a straight-set (21-17, 21-16) win against Lithuanians Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas.

Pool A had an all-American ‘final’, with Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander prevailing over Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner. The Olympians had won the first set 21-13 when Trevor Crabb forfeited the match due to an injury. Earlier in the day, Crabb and Sander had triumphed over Australians Thomas Hodges and Zach Schubert in the tie-breaker (13-21, 21-19, 15-8).

Pool C was won by Brazilian World Championship silver medalists Vitor Felipe and Renato Lima, who topped Swiss Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 15-13) and Australians Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett also in the tie-breaker (21-18, 18-21, 15-12).

The Espinho Challenge continues on Saturday, with the elimination rounds. The first matches of the day will be the two Round of 18 duels, followed by the eight Round of 16 encounters and the four quarterfinals. The semifinals and the medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.

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