The victory has earned the Germans a spot in the tournament’s elimination rounds, and on Thursday they will have an opportunity to upgrade it to a direct berth in to the Round of 12 by playing against Polish Olympians Michal Bryl and Bartosz Łosiak, who defeated French Rémi Bassereau and Calvin Aye in two sets (21-15, 21-17) in the other match of the day in the pool.
Ehlers and Wickler played together in Hamburg, where they live, three times since they became partners, taking bronze on the first occasion, in 2022. Last year’s home tournament was bittersweet for the Germans, who played in their city just two weeks after winning silver in Paris, but had to prematurely exit the tournament after securing a first-round victory due to an injury sustained by Ehlers.
Another German team competing in the main draw in Hamburg this week, Paul Henning and Lui Wüst didn’t have a successful start, losing to Swedish Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson in three sets (21-18, 12-21, 15-8) in their first Pool D match. In the same pool, Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci came back to beat the Chilean Grimalt cousins Marco and Esteban 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 15-13).
The same happened to the Sagstetter brothers Jonas and Benedikt, who fell to reigning world champions Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner of Czechia in straight sets (21-17, 21-18) in Pool E. The other match of the day had Cuban Olympians Jorge Alayo and Noslen Díaz beating Dutch Matthew Immers and Ruben Penninga also in two sets (24-22, 21-14).
