Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos made a dream start to their campaign at the Joao Pessoa Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour on Wednesday. In the morning, they passed successfully through a tough qualifying match, and in the afternoon, they produced a shocking upset of the world’s number one team, as the first-leg matches of pool play in the main draw were held.

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After delivering a hard-fought 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 17-15) upset of Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich & Jonathan Jordan, seeded fourth in the qualification bracket, Pedrosa & Campos fell into the toughest spot in the main draw – in Pool A against mighty Norwegians Anders Mol & Christian Sorum for their pool stage opener. The clash with the top seeds – Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions, Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalists, 2022 world champions and reigning European champions – followed a similar plot. The Portuguese team took the first set, but allowed the opponents to push it to a tie-breaker resolution. Once again, the third set was extended to overtime and, once again, Pedrosa & Campos won it, 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 17-15). Pedrosa led the team with 22 points, including five kill blocks and an ace. Campos chipped in with another 18, including two aces. Both Mol & Sorum finished with 23 points apiece, with Mol putting up as many as six kill blocks.

On Thursday, Pedrosa & Campos will fight for the first place in the pool and a direct ticket to the round of 12 with US Olympians Miles Evans & Chase Budinger, who mastered a 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) shutout of Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier. Mol & Sorum will take on the Swiss for survival in the tournament.

Surprises occurred in Pool F as well. It features two teams arising from the qualifiers and both of them won their opening main draw matches. Germany’s Lukas Pfretzschner & Sven Winter started their day with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) sweep of their qualification match against Chile’s Vicente Droguett & Fernando Quintero, and then, seeded 19^th in the main draw, they mounted a 2-1 (24-26, 21-16, 15-11) comeback against sixth-seeded home favorites Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci with a match-high 23 points from Pfretzschner, including two aces and two kill blocks.

In the same Pool F, 18^th-seeded Austrian qualifiers Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger achieved a 2-0 (26-24, 21-14) upset of seventh-seeded Latvians Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots, with a 24-point match high from Berger, including two aces and two kill blocks. Before that, the Austrians put together a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win over Spain’s Alejandro Huerta & Adrian Gavira in the qualifications.

Pool B offered two tie-breaker resolutions in its opening leg – second-seeded Dutchmen Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot’s 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-13) win over Brazilian qualifiers Adelmo Folha & Mateus Dultra and Norwegians Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol’s 2-1 (26-24, 18-21, 15-7) win over France’s Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat.

Third-seeded Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson were also pushed to a third set in Pool C. The young Swedes managed to overcome the resistance of Brazilian qualifiers Vinicius Freitas & Heitor Barbosa only in the overtime of the tie-breaker, 2-1 (21-18, 12-21, 17-15). In the same pool, number three in the World Ranking Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso of Argentina produced a convincing 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) shutout of Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher.

The other Swedish duo, fourth-seeded reigning Olympic champions David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig, were also forced to a tie-breaker resolution of their opening match. They defeated French qualifiers Remi Bassereau & Calvin Aye in Pool D by the narrowest of margins, 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 15-13), and will take on Brazil’s George Wanderley & Saymon Barbosa, who managed a 2-0 (21-17, 22-20) victory over USA’s Chaim Schalk & James Shaw.

In Pool E, Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak and Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde & Alexander Brouwer lived up to their higher seeding and took their matches in straight sets - 2-0 (21-13, 27-25) over Brazilian qualifiers Andre Stein & Renato Lima and 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) over German qualifiers Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter, respectively.

Men’s main draw action in Joao Pessoa will resume on Thursday at 15:00 local time (18:00 UTC) with the deciding pool matches.

VW Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa Elite: schedule and results

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