Latvians Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots had a pair of complicated matches on Saturday at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite, but survived both of them and will appear in the tournament’s medal rounds on Sunday.

Besides the Latvians, three other European teams – Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum, the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot and Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak - also overcame a tense day of elimination matches at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium and continue alive in the fight for the title in Germany.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite live on VBTV

Only four matches will be held on Sunday, the last day of action in Hamburg. The day will begin with Mol/Sørum and Plavins/Fokerots meeting in the first semifinal at 10:00 local time (8:00 GMT) and Boermans/de Groot and Bryl/Łosiak playing in the second one hour later. The winners play for gold at 18:00 (16:00 GMT), while the losers clash for bronze two hours earlier.

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite – Match Schedule & Results

One of the six teams that earned a spot in the Round of 12 by playing in the Round of 18 on Friday, the 40-year-old Plavins and the 20-year-old Fokerots faced Cuban Olympians Jorge Alayo and Noslen Díaz, who were yet to drop a set in the tournament, in the Round of 12 and handled the Caribbean in straight sets (27-25, 21-15).

The victory advanced the 2024 European champions to the quarterfinals, where they played home favorites and Paris Olympic silver medalists Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers and came out on top in the tie-breaker (21-19, 15-21, 15-9), returning to the semifinals of an Elite event for the first time since last November, when they won bronze in Rio de Janeiro.

Their semifinal opponents, Mol and Sørum, who won the Hamburg Elite last year, had a strong day on Saturday in Germany, beating Bryl and Łosiak 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) in the Round of 12 and repeating the two-set (21-18, 22-20) victory in the quarterfinals against Alayo and Díaz.

Sunday will mark the seventh time the two teams meet and the Norwegians have a significant 5-1 lead over the Latvians, who topped them to win bronze in Rio last November.

Polish knock Olympic champions down

After being defeated by Mol and Sørum in the Round of 12, Bryl and Łosiak were given a second life in the Hamburg Elite, moving forward despite the defeat, and they made the most of it, delivering a strong performance to eliminate reigning Olympic champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden in the quarterfinals with a three-set (15-21, 22-20, 15-12) victory.

Their opponents Boermans and de Groot also made it to the semifinals after taking down a Swedish duo – they defeated Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson in straight sets (21-18, 21-18) in the quarterfinals. Earlier, the Dutch swept (21-18, 23-21) Brazilian Olympians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci in the Round of 12.

The Hamburg Elite semifinals will also mark the seventh duel between Polish and Dutch and the series is currently even with three victories for each team.

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