Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso were the sensations of the first day of the main draw of the men’s tournament of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16, starting their campaign in Germany with a pair of sweeps on Thursday.

Playing in the main draw of an Elite16 event for the first time in the year, the Argentinean brothers guaranteed their permanence in the tournament for at least two more days as the four points collected with their triumphs not only placed them at the top of the standings in Pool A, but also confirmed their presence in Saturday’s elimination rounds.

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Getting to appear in the main draw of an Elite16 event for the first time since July 2023, the Argentineans made their wait worthwhile on Thursday, getting two big wins at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium. In their first match, the Capogrossos topped Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher 2-0 (21-19, 21-17).

Motivated by their promising start, the Argentineans delivered another strong performance in the second match of the day, beating Swiss qualifiers Quentin Métral and Jonathan Jordan also 2-0 (21-18, 21-19).

Guaranteed in the elimination rounds, Nicolas and Tomas will try to take another step forward when they play German Olympic medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler – if they win, they will finish first in the pool and advance directly to the quarterfinals. The match, however, might not happen as Ehlers injured his left ankle during their opening-match victory over the Swiss and had to forfeit the duel against the Australians in the evening.

Mol and Sørum in control in Pool B

Pool B also held two rounds of matches on Thursday and Tokyo Olympic champions and Paris Olympic medalists Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway had the best start among all four teams, going undefeated in their two encounters to collect four points and claim a spot in the elimination rounds.

The Beach Volley Vikings dominated Dutch Leon Luini and Ruben Penninga to a 2-0 (21-17, 26-24) victory in their first match and then triumphed over Brazilians Arthur Mariano and Adrielson dos Santos also 2-0 (21-11, 21-19).

Mol and Sørum will complete their pool play schedule on Friday against Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira, who fell to the Brazilians and downed the Dutch to end the first day of the main draw with a 1-1 record.

Pool C had just two matches and one of them was the biggest upset of the day, with Austrian qualifiers Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg beating Brazilian Olympians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) – the other encounter had Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava topping Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen 2-1 (21-16, 20-22, 15-11).

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Pool D was dominated by Dutch teams as Paris Olympians Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot downed Portuguese qualifiers João Pedrosa and Hugo Campos 2-0 (21-15, 21-17), while European Championship bronze medalists Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde triumphed over German wildcards Paul Henning and Maximilian Just also 2-0 (21-15, 21-15).

Pool play will be completed on Friday in Hamburg, when 12 of the 16 teams that started the tournament will advance to Saturday’s elimination rounds – the four pool winners go directly to the quarterfinals, while the second and third-placed duos in each pool play in the Round of 12. The semifinals and medal matches will be held on Sunday at the Am Rothenbaum.

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