Three days after winning their first gold medal as partners on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, Swiss Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier continued to make noise in the international beach volleyball scene on Wednesday, getting a pair of victories that took them from the qualifier to the elimination rounds in the Gstaad Elite.

Still carrying the momentum that led them to triumph at the Warmia Mazury Challenge last Sunday, Krattiger and Dillier had a very successful first day at the Swiss Alps on Wednesday, avoiding elimination in the qualifier and starting their main draw campaign with a massive victory over reigning world champions Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner of Czechia.

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite live on VBTV

A new team on the Beach Pro Tour in 2025, the Swiss have been consistently competitive at the Futures and Challenge levels, having won one gold, two silver and one bronze medals in seven Beach Pro Tour events.

This week in Gstaad, Krattiger and Dillier entered an Elite event for the first time, and they took the opportunity to compete in the main draw by topping compatriots Quentin Métral and Michiel Zandbergen in straight sets (21-18, 21-16) in the qualifier.

A few hours later, the Swiss returned to the sand to make their main draw debut in Pool E and had a much bigger challenge to face, meeting world champions Perušič and Schweiner. The home team prevailed in a tight match, winning 2-1 (21-19, 14-21, 15-12).

The victory over the world champions has secured them a spot in the Round of 18 of the event. Krattiger and Dillier will play again on Thursday and, if they beat Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci, who defeated French Téo Rotar and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-13), in the pool final, they will advance directly to the Round of 12 instead.

Heidrich and Jordan also go undefeated

Swiss fans who followed the action in Gstaad on Wednesday got to watch not one, but two home teams have excellent starts in the tournament, as Tokyo 2020 Olympian Adrian Heidrich and partner Jonathan Jordan also went undefeated from the qualifier to the elimination rounds.

Interestingly, the Swiss got the better of two duos formed by brothers during the day in Gstaad, beating Germans Jonas and Benedikt Sagstetter 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) in the qualifier and overcoming Argentineans Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso in the tie-breaker (16-21, 21-17, 15-12) to begin their Pool D campaign on the right foot.

On Thursday, Heidrich and Jordan will meet Dutch Olympians Alexander Brouwer and Steven van de Velde, who topped German Olympic medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler 2-0 (21-19, 21-18), for a spot in the Round of 12.

The Pool A final will reunite Norwegian stars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, who downed Swedish Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson 2-0 (21-18, 21-16), and Australian Olympians Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert, who prevailed over Americans Chaim Schalk and James Shaw in the tie-breaker (21-16, 15-21, 20-18).

The two teams that claimed the first Pool B spots in the elimination rounds were Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, who started their campaign with a three-set (17-21, 21-17, 15-8) victory over French Rémi Bassereau and Calvin Aye, and reigning European champions Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots of Latvia, who swept (22-20, 21-17) Americans Andy Benesh and Miles Partain.

In Pool C, the two teams undefeated after their first round of matches are Qatari Olympic medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, who triumphed 2-1 (21-18, 23-25, 15-11) against Portuguese Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa, and Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen, who dominated Austrians Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller to secure a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) victory.

Pool F got started with a pair of three-setters as Cubans Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz topped Brazilians André Loyola and George Wanderley 2-1 (23-25, 21-18, 16-14) and Dutch Matthew Immers and Leon Luini defeated Swiss Yves Haussener and Julian Friedli in the tie-breaker (15-21, 21-17, 15-11).

Besides the two Swiss teams, also overcame the qualifier in Gstaad Portugal’s Pedrosa/Campos, Brazil’s André/George, Sweden’s Hölting Nilsson/Andersson, France’s Bassereau/Aye and Rotar/Gauthier-Rat and the Netherlands’ Immers/Luini.

Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite – Match Schedule & Results

The remaining 12 pool play matches for the men will be completed on Thursday. The Round of 18 and the Round of 12 will follow on Friday, with the quarterfinals and semifinals taking place on Saturday. The medal matches will conclude the event on Sunday.

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