Elite16 - Rio de Janeiro, BRA - 2025

Evans & Budinger stun Mol & Sorum in Rio

Young Austrian qualifiers Hammarberg & Berger win pool for second week in a row

Published 03:05, 26 Sept 2025

Mol, A./Sørum, C. (NOR) vs. Evans/Budinger (USA) - Pool A #61475764

Anders Mol on the block against Miles Evans

USA’s Miles Evans & Chase Budinger dropped the biggest surprise of the men’s pool stage at the Rio de Janeiro Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour by shutting out the almighty Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway in the Pool A winners’ match and making it among the six teams with a direct ticket to the round of 12. Meanwhile, Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger of Austria managed to make the trip from qualifiers to pool winners for a second week in a row after doing so at the Joao Pessoa Elite as well.

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Seeded 13^th in the main draw, Evans & Budinger started off with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-10) sweep of their first Pool A match against Germany’s Paul Henning & Lui Wust. Then they took the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking, top-seeded Mol & Sorum, and stunned them in straight sets, 2-0 (21-16, 24-22). Budinger led the way with six kill blocks towards a match-high 22 points against the Norwegians. Evans added another 17. Meanwhile, Czech qualifiers Tadeas Trousil & Jiri Sedlak, seeded 24^th in the 24-team main draw, who had also managed to take a set from Mol & Sorum, beat the Germans by 2-1 (15-21, 21-17, 15-10) to knock them out of contention and advance to the round of 18 as the third-placed team in the pool.

Two teams that emerged from the qualifiers met in the Pool E final after shocking their higher ranked opponents in three-set turnarounds in the first leg. 17^th-seeded Hammarberg & Berger once again managed to come back from a set down to defeat 20^th-seeded Brazilians George Wanderley & Saymon Barbosa by a hard-fought 2-1 (20-22, 21-18, 16-14) and hop into the round of 12. Hammarberg and Saymon traded nine kill blocks, while the former added three aces to finish with a match-high 34 points. Fifth-seeded Steven van de Velde & Alexander Brouwer of the Netherlands had to settle for third in the pool after knocking out eighth-seeded Americans Chaim Schalk & James Shaw in a tight 2-0 (21-18, 31-29) losers’ match.

10^th-seeded Frenchmen Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat produced a 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 15-10) upset of third-seeded Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan of Qatar in the Pool C final. The number four team in the World Ranking, 15^th-seeded Argentineans Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso, who had been beaten in three sets by the French team in the opening leg, bounced back with a 2-1 (21-18, 20-22, 15-11) win over Dutch qualifiers Ruben Penninga & Matthew Immers to stay in contention.

In the other three pools, the highest seeded teams lived up to their ranking and topped the standings to jump straight into the second playoff round. Second-seeded Dutchmen Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) sweep of the Pool B final against Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier, while American Olympians Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh survived a dramatic two-setter against Chilean qualifiers Vicente Droguett & Fernando Quintero to squeeze out a 2-0 (33-31, 26-24) victory and advance as third in the pool.

Fourth-seeded Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots of Latvia topped Pool D after two straight-set wins. In the final, they delivered a 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) victory over Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher. The third place in the pool was for Brazil’s Andre Stein & Renato Lima, who beat Germany’s Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter by 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-12) in the survival match.

Last week’s Joao Pessoa Elite winners and home favorites Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci, seeded sixth in the main draw, had to come back from a set down in the Pool F winners’ game against Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo on the way to a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 15-8) victory and a ticket to the round of 12. Norwegian qualifiers Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol will join the Cubans into the round of 18 after a 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) win over Israeli qualifiers Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov for the third place in the pool.