Swiss Esmée Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré were among the biggest winners of the opening day of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Brasília Elite16, which featured the qualifier on Wednesday.

With a pair of wins earned at the Parque da Cidade, the Europeans were among the four women’s and men’s teams that advanced to the main draw of the tournament held in Brazil, giving themselves an opportunity to earn valuable points in the race to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics this week.

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Esmée, 24, and Zoé, 26, faced two other teams with Olympic aspirations in the Brazilian capital and handled both of them with authority, beating Canada’s Sarah Pavan/Molly McBain 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) and the Austrian Klinger sisters Ronja and Dorina also in two sets (21-19, 21-17).

The Swiss, who won the Guadalajara Challenge last month, now need to advance to the elimination rounds in Brasília to add points to their total in the event - they’re in Pool C, alongside USA’s Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss, Brazil’s Carol Salgado/Bárbara Seixas and Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippmann. Currently with 7,360 Olympic points, they need to finish ninth or higher to increase that amount.

A ninth-place finish in Brazil would already be enough for them to return to the qualification zone as the 140 points they would add would make them pass compatriots Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré, who are currently the second-best Swiss team in the dispute with 7,440 points, but lost in the qualifier in Brasília and won’t be able to improve their total.

The Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists, Mäder and Vergé-Dépré lost to Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti in straight sets (21-12, 21-15) in the second round of the qualifier. The home team went to Pool B and will face USA’s Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes, China’s Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia and Switzerland’s Nina Brunner/Tanja Hüberli.

Fresh from their victory at last weekend’s Xiamen Challenge, Germans Sandra Ittlinger and Karla Borger also kept their Olympic hopes alive on Wednesday in Brazil, making it to the main draw with a two-set (21-14, 21-13) win over Elize Maia Secomandi/Thamela Coradello.

With the same 7,360 points as Esmée and Zoé, Ittlinger and Borger will have their main contenders in the Olympic race, Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann (7,660) and Ludwig/Lippmann (7,480), both in action in Brasília. In the main draw, the Germans will meet Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson, the Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam and Brazil’s Tainá Bigi/Victoria Lopes in Pool D.

France’s Clémence Vieira/Aline Chamereau claimed the last and fourth spot in the main draw among the women and will be in Pool A, alongside Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos, Müller/Tillmann and Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova.

Crabb and Brunner into the main draw

In the men’s event, Americans Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner (7,860 points) also secured a spot in the main draw, setting up another chapter of their internal battle with compatriots Miles Evans and Chase Budinger (7,460).

Crabb and Brunner prevailed in the qualifier by topping the home team of Arthur Mariano and Adrielson dos Santos 2-0 (21-19, 23-21) and will now face Brazil’s Evandro Gonçalves/Arthur Lanci, Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak and England’s Javier Bello/Joaquin Bello in Pool D in the main draw.

The winners of last week’s Xiamen Challenge, Chile’s Marco and Esteban Grimalt are right above the qualification line with 7,080 points and will have a good opportunity to add some more after they defeated the Argentinean Capogrosso brothers Nicolas and Tomas 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-10) and joined Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler, the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen and Austria’s Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst in Pool C.

Their compatriots Noe Aravena and Vicente Droguett are also in after they eliminated Austrians Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) win in the second round of the qualifier. In the main draw, their first opponents will be the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot, USA’s Evans/Budinger and Qatar’s Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan in Pool A.

Currently looking at the qualification zone from the outside with 6,420 points, Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen dominated France’s Julien Lyneel/Remi Bassereau 2-0 (21-17, 24-22) to make it to the main draw in Brazil. They’re part of Pool B, where they will play against USA’s Andy Benesh/Miles Partain, Brazil’s Andre Loyola/George Wanderley and the Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde/Matthew Immers.

Brasília Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

The main draw in Brasília starts at 9:00 local time (12:00 GMT) on Thursday and 12 matches in each gender are set to take place during the day at the Parque da Cidade.

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