The Chilean Grimalt cousins Marco and Esteban formed the only non-European team to overcome the men’s qualifier of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite event on Wednesday.

Alongside duos from hosts Czechia, Austria, Germany, France and Portugal, the three-time Olympians secured a victory in the opening day of the tournament held at the iconic Lower Vítkovice industrial heritage site, advancing to the main draw of the event.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite live on VBTV

The most experienced team in the qualifier, 35-year-old Marco and 34-year-old Esteban were faced with young Austrians Timo Hammarberg, 21, and Tim Berger, 20, in their win-or-go home match in Czechia on Wednesday. They used their experience to deliver in the key moments of the match and secured a two-set (22-20, 21-17) victory that pushed them forward in the tournament.

The Grimalts, who finished ninth at last year’s Paris Olympics, hadn’t played in a qualifier on the Beach Pro Tour in a year, having failed to advance in the last time they did it, at last season’s Ostrava Elite event. The Chileans have now played in three qualifiers in Ostrava, having advanced in two of them.

In the main draw, the Grimalts will be part of Pool F, where they will compete with Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner, Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak and Portugal’s Hugo Campos/João Pedrosa.

Austria and Germany advance two teams

European neighbors Austria and Germany were the most successful countries in the Ostrava Elite men’s qualifier, advancing each two duos to the main draw. The Austrians saw Julian Hörl and Moritz Pristauz sweep (21-16, 21-16) Swedish Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson and Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller take Latvians Ardis Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics down also in two sets (21-16, 21-13).

A fourth Austrian team competing in the qualifier this week, Alexander Horst and Paul Pascariuc were eliminated by French Rémi Bassereau and Calvin Aye, who prevailed in two sets (21-14, 21-18) in their encounter.

On the German side, the Sagstetter brothers Benedikt and Jonas won the only tie-breaker of the day, overcoming Swiss Yves Haussener and Julian Friedli 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 16-14), while Philipp Huster and Maximilian Just downed Brazilians Renato Lima and Pedro Sousa in straight sets (21-17, 21-17).

Like Austria, Germany also could have more teams qualifying, but Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter couldn’t handle Czechs Jiri Sedlak and Jakub Sepka, falling in two sets (21-13, 25-23). The eighth and final spot in the main draw went to Portuguese Campos and Pedrosa, who got the better of Brazilians Arthur Mariano and Adrielson dos Santos, winning 2-0 (21-18, 21-17).

Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite – Match Schedule and Results

The eight teams that survived the qualifier in Ostrava will now join the 16 directly seeded into the main draw. Teams are split into six pools of four, with the pool winners advancing directly to the Round of 12 and duos ranked second and third making it to the Round of 18.

Pool play will begin on Thursday and continue until Friday, when the first two Round of 18 matches will be held. That stage will be completed on Saturday, when the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals will also take place. The semifinals and medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.

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