Challenge - Nuvali, PHI - 2025

Reinhardt & Sowa grind through to Nuvali Challenge main draw

Two Australian pairs and one each from Belgium, Brazil, France, Latvia and USA also qualify for Thursday’s main draw

Published 01:06, 15 Oct 2025

Germany's Robin Sowa

Germany’s Jonas Reinhardt & Robin Sowa were not only the lowest seeded team to make it from Wednesday’s men’s qualifiers to Thursday’s main draw at the Nuvali Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, but they had the toughest journey, earning two hard-fought victories over strong opponents to push through and join two Australian pairs and one each from Belgium, Brazil, France, Latvia and USA in successfully passing the grind in the Philippines.

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Seeded 20^th in the 24-team qualification bracket, Reinhardt & Sowa started off with a 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-8) turnaround against 13^th-seeded Canadians Guillaume Rivest & Tynan Gannett. Sowa led the way with a match-high 30 points, including three kill blocks and an ace. In the second qualification round, the German duo persevered through an epic first set against fourth-seeded Spaniards Nathan Matos & Pablo Perez to celebrate a 2-0 (30-28, 21-16) victory and gain passage to the main draw. Sowa was once again the best scorer of the match, with 19 points to his name, including four blocks. Reinhardt & Sowa were seeded 32^nd in the 32-team main draw and will take on top-seeded Austrians Christoph Dressler & Philipp Waller in their first game on Thursday.

Reinhardt/Sowa vs. Pérez/Matos - Match Highlights, 10/15/2025

Keran Duval & Arthur Canet also put together two qualification wins on Wednesday to advance. The 15^th-seeded Frenchmen achieved a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) victory over 18^th-seeded Australians Solomon Bushby & Jed Walker and followed up with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) upset of second-seeded Spaniards Alvaro Viera & Antonio Saucedo.

11^th-seeded Kyan Vercauteren & Joppe Van Langendonck of Belgium also posted two straight-set wins in the qualifiers – 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) over 22^nd-seeded Indonesians Danangsyah Pribadi & Yosi Firnanda, and 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) over sixth-seeded Turks Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru. So did 10^th-seeded Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics of Latvia, delivering a 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) shutout of 23^rd-seeded Nodirjon Alekseev & Dilshodbek Tolibaev of Uzbekistan and a 2-0 (21-13, 23-21) shutout of seventh-seeded Robert Kemp & Cameron Chadwick of Canada.

The other four successful qualifiers lived up to their seeding and, after passing through the first round with byes, they won their only games on Wednesday to make the main draw, but three of them had to battle it out through three-set duels. Top-seeded Americans Hagen Smith & Logan Webber came back from a set down to celebrate a narrow 2-1 (19-21, 24-22, 16-14) victory over 17^th-seeded Florian Breer & Luc Fluckiger of Switzerland. So did fifth-seeded Australians Ben Hood & Oliver Merritt in their 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-11) win over Canada’s Luke de Greeff & Martin Licht, seeded 12^th. Eighth-seeded Brazilians Gabriel Dos Reis Santiago & Felipe Alves Pereira also managed a 2-1 (20-22, 21-6, 15-10) comeback against ninth-seeded Daniel Moreno & Roberto Sanfelix of Spain. Another Australian duo, third-seeded D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse, got their job done in straight sets, 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) against 14^th-seeded Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane of England.