Czech fans who went out on Thursday to support the country’s men’s teams in the first day of the main draw of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite returned home satisfied after witnessing excellent performances from two of the three duos that represent the country in their home tournament.

While world champions Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner confirmed the expectations with a solid opening-match victory at the iconic Lower Vítkovice industrial heritage site, qualifiers Jakub Sepka and Jiri Sedlak produced the biggest upset of the day and secured a spot in the tournament’s elimination round.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite live on VBTV

Looking to claim their first title in Ostrava after finishing second in three of their five appearances in the city, reigning world champions Perusic and Schweiner had a promising start to their campaign, downing the Chilean Grimalt cousins Marco and Esteban in two sets (21-18, 21-10) in Pool F.

On Friday, the Czech stars will complete their pool play schedule facing Polish Olympians Michal Bryl and Bartosz Łosiak, who topped Portuguese qualifiers Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) in their debut. The winners of this match will advance directly to the Round of 12, while the losers will need to go through the Round of 18.

Sepka and Sedlak upset Dutch Olympians

In Pool B, Sepka and Sedlak, who earned their spot in the main draw on Wednesday’s qualifier, continued in great form, and upset Dutch Olympians Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, who took gold in the most recent Beach Pro Tour Elite event, in Brasília, last month, securing a three-set (26-24, 16-21, 15-10) victory.

The result has placed the Czechs in the tournament’s elimination rounds and they will try to advance directly to the Round of 12 on Friday, when they face Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci, who downed Germans Paul Henning and Lui Wüst in the tie-breaker (21-18, 14-21, 15-11).

Pool A has Anders Mol/Christian Sørum and Martins Plavins/Kristians Fokerots as the first-round winners. The Norwegians swept (21-11, 21-13) Austrians Julian Hörl and Moritz Pristauz, while the Latvians and reigning European champions needed all three sets (21-14, 15-21, 16-14) to handle Australian Olympians Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis.

Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite – Match Schedule and Results

Pool C started with a pair of upsets as the German Sagstetter brothers Beneditk and Jonas defeated another pair of siblings, formed by Argentineans Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso, in two sets (21-16, 22-20), while Americans Chaim Schalk and James Shaw took Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen down in three (17-21, 21-18, 15-12).

The favorites prevailed in the opening matches of Pool D, with reigning Olympic champions David Åhman and Jonathan Hellvig of Sweden beating Germans Maximilian Just and Philipp Huster 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) and Americans Andy Benesh and Miles Partain sweeping (21-19, 21-12) Czech wildcards Tadeas Trousil and Matyas Dzavoronok.

Pool E had Qatari Olympic medalists Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse, who defeated French Rémi Bassereau and Calvin Aye in three sets (16-21, 21-19, 15-8), and Austrian qualifiers Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller, who prevailed over German Olympic medalists Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers in the tie-breaker (19-21, 21-16, 18-16), claiming the first spots in the elimination rounds.

Pool play will be completed on Friday, when the first two Round of 18 matches will also be played. The remaining four duels in the first round of the playoffs will take place on Saturday, alongside the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals. The semifinals and medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.

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