After going winless in the first two tournaments they played in the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour season, German Olympic medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler finally got to celebrate a positive result at the international level this year on Thursday in Alanya, Türkiye.

The Europeans are among the 16 men’s duos that won their first pool matches at the Beach Sports Center facility and secured a spot in the Challenge tournament’s elimination rounds. The event continues on Friday with the conclusion of pool play and the Round of 24. The Round of 16 and the quarterfinals will be held on Saturday, with the semifinals and medal matches taking place on Sunday.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge live on VBTV

Ehlers, 31, and Wickler, 30, had arguably the best season of their careers in 2024, when they won silver at the Paris Olympics and made it to the semifinals in six of the ten international tournaments they played, while also finishing second at the European Championship.

The 2025 season started in a very different way for the Germans, though, as they were unable to break pool at the Beach Pro Tour Elite events held in Saquarema, in April, and Ostrava, in May, dropping all four matches they played in the two events, three of them to teams that came from the qualifiers.

Their luck started to change at the Alanya Challenge as the Olympic medalists had a solid start to their campaign on Thursday, taking down Latvians Ardis Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics in straight sets (21-12, 21-14) in their Pool B opening match.

The result has guaranteed the Germans in the elimination rounds of the event. On Friday, they will face Swiss Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan, who topped Iranians Abbas Pourasgari and Alireza Aghajanighasab 2-0 (21-13, 21-15), for a direct spot in the Round of 16 – the losers will need to play in the Round of 24.

World champions start strong

Reigning world champions Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner of Czechia also had a good start in Alanya, beating French qualifiers Elouan Chouikh-Barbez and Joadel Gardoque 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) in Pool A. They will now play against Canadians Sam Schachter and Jonathan Picket, who overcame the German Sagstetter brothers Benedikt and Jonas also in two sets (21-17, 21-14).

In Pool C, Brazilians George Wanderley and Saymon Barbosa, who topped Australians Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert 2-1 (23-21, 20-22, 15-11), and Australians Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher, who defeated French Rémi Bassereau and Calvin Aye also in the tie-breaker (19-21, 21-10, 15-7), were the first to secure their spots in the elimination rounds.

American Olympians Miles Evans and Chase Budinger, who downed Portuguese Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa 2-0 (21-18, 21-17), and Germans Paul Henning and Lui Wüst, who triumphed also in two sets (21-18, 21-17) over Australians D'Artagnan Potts and Jack Pearse, were the first to emerge in Pool D.

Pool E will have an all-Austrian final after Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller defeated Americans Hagen Smith and Logan Webber 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 15-13) and Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg prevailed over compatriots Julian Hörl and Moritz Pristauz in straight sets (22-20, 21-17).

In Pool F, first place is between Brazilians Renato Lima and Pedro Oliveira, who started their campaign with a 2-0 (23-21, 38-36) victory over Czechs Tadeas Trousil and Matyas Dzavoronok, and Germans Sven Winter and Lukas Pfretzschner, who topped Italians Samuele Cottafava and Gianluca Dal Corso also in straight sets (22-20, 21-17).

Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik, who got the better of Austrians Paul Pascariuc and Alexander Horst, winning 2-0 (21-17, 21-13), and French Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Téo Rotar, who downed Brazilians Adelmo Folha and Matheus Dultra in the tie-breaker (19-21, 21-16, 15-9), are the candidates to finish first in Pool G.

Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge – Match Schedule & Results

In Pool H, the duel will have Swiss Yves Haussener and Julian Friedli, who defeated the Norwegian Mol brothers Markus and Adrian 2-0 (22-20, 21-17), and Germans Maximilian Just and Philipp Huster, who got a two-set (21-14, 21-17) victory over the home team of Yusuf Özdemir and Batuhan Kuru.

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