Swedish Jacöb Holting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson won their second tie-breaker in as many days on Thursday to finish first in Pool D as the first phase of the men’s main draw of this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite event held in Hamburg was completed.

The young Swedish and the other five pool winners will have Friday off in Germany, as the Round of 12 is scheduled for Saturday. The 12 duos that finished second and third in their pools will make the trip to the Am Rothenbaum Stadium before the weekend to compete in the Round of 18.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite live on VBTV

One day after defeating Germans Paul Henning and Lui Wüst 2-1 in their first Pool D match, Hölting Nilsson and Andersson again needed all three sets to come from behind and beat Brazilian Olympians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci in in the tie-breaker (22-24, 21-19, 15-10) on Thursday.

Playing in Hamburg for the first time in their careers, the young Swedish are arguably the hottest team on the Beach Pro Tour right now, having made it to the podium in four of their last five events, taking gold at the Malmö Futures and the Baden Challenge and silver at the Gstaad and the Montréal Elite tournaments.

Their compatriots David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig also advanced directly to the Round of 12, but the reigning Olympic champions did so by earning a forfeit victory against the Argentinean Capogrosso brothers Nicolas and Tomas to top Pool C.

Norwegian superstars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway had to fight hard to keep the top spot in Pool A, as the Beach Volley Vikings were strongly challenged by French Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Téo Rotar, but still came out on top, triumphing 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 15-13).

Pool B was also decided in a three-setter and had Dutch Olympians Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot overcoming the English Bello twins Javier and Joaquin in the tie-breaker (18-21, 21-17, 15-8) to claim the first place and the spot in the Round of 12.

In Pool E, Cuban Olympians Jorge Alayo and Noslen Díaz upset reigning world champions Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner of Czechia in straight sets (21-19, 27-25) to make the jump to the Round of 12. Home heroes Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers produced a massive comeback to defeat Polish Olympians Michal Bryl and Bartosz Łosiak 3-1 (13-21, 21-18, 15-9) and come out on top in Pool F.

The six Round of 18 matches set to take place on Friday in Hamburg will have the Capogrossos against the German Sagstetter brothers Jonas and Benedikt, the Bellos facing Latvians Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots, Perušič and Schweiner battling Italians Gianluca Dal Corso and Marco Viscovich, Rotar and Gauthier-Rat meeting Henning and Wüst, Evandro and Arthur playing Swiss Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan and Bryl and Łosiak going against Austrians Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller.

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite – Match Schedule & Results

After that, the tournament will continue with the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals on Saturday, before coming to an end with the semifinals and the medal matches on Sunday.

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