The American Crabb brothers Taylor and Trevor survived an intense Round of 18 battle in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 1xBet Itapema Elite on Friday and are among the 12 duos that will get to compete over the weekend at the Meia Praia Beach.

Besides the Crabbs, two duos from hosts Brazil and one from each of Czechia, France and Italy also overcame elimination matches in the third day of action in Itapema and are now set to face the six pool winners, who had the Friday off in the Brazilian event.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour 1xBet Itapema Elite live on VBTV

Playing together for just the second time in the 2025 Beach Pro Tour season, the 36-year-old Trevor and the 33-year-old Taylor had to appear in Friday's Round of 18 in Itapema after they finished second in Pool C, where they amassed one win and one loss.

The Americans were faced with Austrians Christoph Dressler and Mathias Seiser and were on the brink of elimination after going down in the first set, but came back stronger to win 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 15-13) and advance.

The two, who finished fourth in the Newport Beach Elite two months ago, will appear in what should be one of the most exciting matches of Saturday's Round of 12 in Brazil, facing the home team of 2017 world champion André Loyola and his partner, 2022 World Championship medalist Renato Lima, who started the tournament in the qualifier and won all their three matches in this week's tournament.

Another Round of 12 duel reuniting Beach Pro Tour heavyweights will involve Brazilian Olympians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci, who left the Round of 18 behind after sweeping (22-20, 21-15) Italians Alex Ranghieri and Manuel Alfieri on Friday, and Latvians Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots, the 2024 European champions, who ranked first in Pool B.

Hosts Brazil had another team winning in the Round of 18 on Friday - qualifiers Arthur Mariano and Adrielson dos Santos, who dominated Polish Piotr Kantor and Filip Lejawa to a two-set (21-17, 21-14) victory and are now set to play Czechs Tadeas Trousil and Matyas Dzavoronok.

Another Czech team remains in contention in Brazil - Jakub Sepka and Jiri Sedlak, who survived their first elimination match of the week in Itapema by coming back to take Brazilians Heitor Benito and Vinícius Freitas down in the tie-breaker (16-21, 21-19, 15-12) and will now see the Chilean Grimalt cousins Marco and Esteban cross their path.

In another three-setter, French Elouan Chouikh-Barbez and Joadel Gardoque defeated Italians Enrico Rossi and Marco Viscovich 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-13) and earned the right to face Brazilians George Wanderley and Saymon Barbosa in the Round of 12 on Saturday.

Despite two defeats on Friday, Italy still have a team alive in Itapema after Paris Olympian Samuele Cottaffava and his partner Gianluca Dal Corso prevailed over Austrians Alexander Horst and Moritz Pristauz in two sets (21-18, 21-13). They now play against the Argentine Capogrosso brothers Nicolas and Tomas.

Beach Pro Tour Itapema Elite - Match Schedule

Saturday's schedule in Itapema features both the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals. The semifinals and medal matches will follow on Sunday.

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