Austrian up-and-coming prospects Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg will compete in the main draw of a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event for the first time this week in Hamburg after they overcame Wednesday’s qualifier at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium.

Besides the Austrians, three other men’s duos and four women’s tandems also went undefeated in the qualifier, claiming the final spots in the main draw, which starts on Thursday, at 8:00 local time (6:00 GMT).

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Playing in just the second Elite16 event in their careers, the 19-year-old Berger and the 20-year-old Hammarberg did better than in Vienna last month, winning a pair of matches against other young duos to confirm their progress in the German event.

The silver medalists of last year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship, the Europeans defeated the 2021 U19 world champions Arthur Canet and Téo Rotar of France 2-0 (23-21, 21-16) in the first round of the qualifier and needed the tie-breaker to overcome the English Bello twins Joaquin and Javier 2-1 (12-21, 21-18, 15-12) in the decisive match.

In the main draw, the Austrians will compete in Pool C, where they will meet Brazil’s Evandro Gonçalves/Arthur Lanci, Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava and Norway’s Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen.

Besides the Austrians, also qualified in Hamburg the Netherlands’ Leon Luini/Ruben Penninga, who topped Czechia’s Jiri Sedlak/Jakub Sepka 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-11), Switzerland’s Jonathan Jordan/Quentin Métral, who defeated compatriots Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer 2-1 (21-18, 13-21, 15-9), and Portugal’s Hugo Campos/João Pedrosa, who eliminated USA’s Hagen Smith/Logan Webber with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) victory.

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Lithuanian Olympians move forward

Fresh from having become the first Lithuanian beach volleyball players to represent their country at the Olympics in Paris two weeks ago, Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte were among the four women’s teams that qualified in Hamburg.

The two, who finished fourth at last week’s European Championship in the Netherlands, frustrated the home fans in Hamburg, eliminating the German duo of Margareta Kozuch and Sarah Schneider with a 2-0 (25-23, 21-16) victory.

Placed in Pool D in the main draw, the Europeans will meet Brazil’s Ágatha Bednarczuk/Rebecca Cavalcanti, Switzerland’s Joana Mäder/Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippman during pool play.

As it happened with the men, all four main draw spots for the women were taken by European duos – the Netherlands’ Brecht Piersma/Wies Bekhuis advanced with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) win over Austria’s Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig, Italy’s Reka Orsi Toth/Giada Bianchi progressed with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) victory over Germany’s Anna-Lena Grüne/Chenoa Christ and Finland’s Taru Lathi/Niina Athiainen moved forward with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) triumph against Argentina’s Ana Gallay/Brenda Churin.

With 16 teams per gender in action, pool play will be split into Thursday and Friday, with Round of 12 and quarterfinal matches taking place on Saturday and the semifinals and medal matches ending the tournament on Sunday.

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