Repeating what they did just under a year ago in the semifinals of the Paris Olympics, Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler shocked Norwegian stars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, beating the FIVB World Ranking leaders in the Round of 12 of this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite event held in Gstaad on Friday.

The German Olympic medalists are among the eight teams that continue alive in the race for the title in the Swiss Alps, which will see both the quarterfinal and the semifinal rounds take place on Saturday. The medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite live on VBTV

While Ehlers and Wickler had lost their first pool play match in Gstaad on Wednesday before securing back-to-back victories in the tournament, Mol and Sørum had claimed a pair of sweeps before Friday’s encounter. When the match started, however, the Germans called the shots and won 2-0 (23-21, 21-16).

It was just the second victory of the Germans over the Tokyo Olympic champions in nine matches held since 2022. Between the triumph in Paris and the one in Gstaad, Mol and Sørum took a win at last year’s Beach Pro Tour Finals, in Doha.

With their Round of 12 victory, Ehlers and Wickler, who had defeated another Norwegian team in Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen in two sets (21-16, 21-13) in the Round of 18 earlier on Friday, guaranteed their best result in the 2025 season as they will leave Gstaad with at least a fifth-place finish.

In the quarterfinals, the German Olympic medalists will face Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, who eliminated Swiss Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan with a three-set (22-20, 16-21, 15-12) victory in the Round of 12.

Despite the Round of 12 defeat, Mol and Sørum still made it to the quarterfinals in Gstaad as one of the top two teams to lose their matches. The Beach Volley Vikings will now play Brazilian Olympians André Loyola and George Wanderley, who topped Australians Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert in two sets (21-19, 21-9) in the Round of 18 and prevailed over Qatari Olympic medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan also in straight sets (21-15, 21-19) in the Round of 12.

Young Swedish keep progressing

Like the Brazilians, young Swedish Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson also reached the quarterfinals after starting the tournament in the qualifier on Wednesday. With that, the reigning U22 European champions, who won two Challenge events in 2024, secured their best finish in a Beach Pro Tour Elite tournament as partners.

The 20-year-old Hölting Nilsson and the 19-year-old Andersson secured a pair of big victories in Gstaad on Friday, sweeping (21-14, 21-19) reigning European champions Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots of Latvia in the Round of 18 and overcoming the home team of Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier also in two sets (21-16, 23-21) in the Round of 12.

The Swedish will now face Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci, who, like them, won two matches on Friday in Gstaad – they defeated Americans Andy Benesh and Miles Partain 2-1 (11-21, 21-19, 15-8) in the Round of 18 and got a two-set (21-17, 21-17) victory against Dutch Matthew Immers and Leon Luini in the Round of 12.

Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite – Match Schedule & Results

The fourth and last quarterfinal duel on Saturday will reunite Dutch Alexander Brouwer and Steven van de Velde, who advanced with a straight-set (26-24, 21-16) win over Cubans Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz, and Cherif and Ahmed, who progressed despite their defeat to André and George.

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