Austria’s Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger will meet France’s Remi Bassereau & Calvin Aye in one of Sunday’s men’s semifinals at the Cape Town Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour after achieving hard-fought upsets of powerful opponents in Saturday’s quarterfinal matches. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson and Norway’s Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol mastered emphatic quarterfinal wins to meet in an all-Scandinavian battle for the other spot in the gold medal showdown.

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21-year-old Hammarberg and 20-year-old Berger persevered through an overtime tie-breaker against third-seeded Steven van de Velde & Alexander Brouwer of the Netherlands to emerge victorious with a ticket to the semifinals in hand. The sixth-seeded Austrians achieved a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 16-14) win over the Dutch Olympians, with Hammarberg delivering five kill blocks towards a team-high 22 points and Berger spiking another 20 points towards the pair’s victory. Brouwer was the best scorer of the match with 24 points, including four aces.

In another quarterfinal, fifth-seeded Bassereau & Aye defeated second-seeded Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci of Brazil. The two teams traded set wins by the narrowest of margins, before the Frenchmen outlasted their opponents in the tie-breaker to claim a 2-1 (22-20, 19-21, 15-11) win after 57 minutes on the court. Bassereau was the most prolific scorer of the match with six kill blocks, two aces and 18 successful swings towards a match-high 26 points. Aye added another 20, all in attack. Evandro put away 24 points for the Brazilian duo.

One of the most anticipated quarterfinal match-ups turned out a one-sided affair, in which top-seeded Holting Nilsson & Andersson hammered out an emphatic 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) shutout of Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler of Germany. 20-year-old Holting Nilsson led the Swedes with 21 points. His tally featured an impressive eight kill blocks and three aces. 19-year-old Andersson chipped in with 11 points, while Ehlers was the best scorer of the German team with 13 points.

Eighth-seeded Berntsen & Mol also produced a straight-set quarterfinal victory, downing 15^th-seeded Brazilians Adelmo Folha & Mateus Dultra by a convincing 2-0 (21-16, 21-14). Mol put up a fantastic 11 kill blocks, to which he added one ace and 14 spike kills to top the match charts with a total of 26 points, while Berntsen contributed 10 points, all in swings. Mateus scored 14 points for the Brazilian side.

Holting Nilsson & Andersson and Berntsen & Mol will meet in the first semifinal on Sunday morning at 10:00 local time (08:00 UTC). Hammarberg & Berger and Bassereau & Aye will follow an hour later. The bronze medal match is scheduled at 15:00 (13:00), and the gold medal showdown will serve off at 17:00 (15:00).

Beach Pro Tour Cape Town Elite: schedule and results

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