Czechs Jakub Sepka and Tomas Semerad were the sensations of the opening day of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 tournament held in Gstaad, Switzerland, securing a pair of wins on Wednesday to advance to the main draw of the event.

Besides the Czechs, three other men’s teams and four women’s duos survived the elimination matches played at the Swiss Alps to earn a chance of making a deep run in the main draw, which will have matches going on from Thursday to Sunday.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16 live on VBTV

Seeded 13^th in the qualifier, the 21-year-old Sepka and the 20-year-old Semerad produced the most surprising result of the opening round of the qualifier, stunning Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik in straight sets (21-19, 21-13).

The two, who had failed to advance from the qualifier in an Elite16 event in four straight attempts, continued in good form in their second match in Gstaad, overcoming the home team of Quentin Métral and Yves Haussener also in two sets (21-15, 21-10) to secure a spot in the main draw.

The Czechs were drawn in Pool A and will face Dutch Olympic medallists Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen in the first match of the main draw, on Thursday – Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum and Americans Andy Benesh and Miles Partain are the other two teams in the pool.

Italians Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi also advanced from the Gstaad qualifier, topping Dutch Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers in two sets (21-18, 21-16). The Olympians are in Pool B in the main draw and will play against Brazil’s Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan and Chile's Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt.

Joining Pool C from the qualifier will be Austrians Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl, who defeated Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves/Arthur Lanci in the tie-breaker (21-19, 16-21, 15-9). Their first main draw opponents will be Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak, France’s Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Brazil’s Pedro Solberg/Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes.

Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira were the fourth men’s team to survive the qualifier in the Swiss Alps. The Europeans moved forward with a 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-11) win over Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen and will now join Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler and Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer in Pool D.

Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

In the women’s qualifier, Americans Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles caused the biggest upset, prevailing over top-seeded Chinese Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia in the tie-breaker (21-15, 19-21, 15-11). The two will be in Pool A in the main draw, where they will face Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos and Ágatha Bednarczuk/Rebecca Cavalcanti and fellow Americans Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil.

Reigning European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia also survived the qualifier, defeating Brazilians Tainá Bigi and Victoria Lopes 2-0 (21-15, 21-18). They will be in Pool B in the main draw, alongside Australia’s Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson and Switzerland’s Joana Mäder/Anouk Vergé-Dépré.

Germans Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Müller will join USA’s Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes, the Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam and Switzerland’s Zoé Vergé-Dépré in Pool C. In the qualifier, the two overcame Czechs Barbora Hermannová and Marie-Sara Štochlová in two sets (21-12, 21-14).

Completing the main draw lineup in Gstaad will be Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi, who topped Spanish Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno in the tie-breaker (21-17, 14-21, 15-11) in the qualifier and will now battle Switzerland’s Tanja Hüberli/Nina Brunner, Brazil’s Bárbara Seixas/Carol Salgado and USA’s Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss.

The main draw begins on Thursday with the first pool play matches – the women will play twice and the men once. The top three teams in each pool will advance to the elimination round on Saturday. The medal matches will be played on Sunday.

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