Ukrainian teams mount comebacks to reach pool finals in Bhubaneswar

The first Challenge event on the 2026 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour got underway in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. The first leg of main draw pool play was held in the men’s competition. Three of the matches produced exciting three-setters, and in two of them, Ukrainian teams had to come back from behind to celebrate victories and qualify for Friday’s pool finals.

• Watch the Bhubaneswar Challenge on VBTV

An even duel between 16^th-seeded Dmytro Kozii & Oleksii Bublyk of Ukraine and 17^th-seeded Gage Basey & Thomas Hurst of the United States unfolded in Pool A. The European team turned the course of the match around from a set down to beat the silver medalists of last month’s Mount Maunganui Futures in New Zealand by 2-1 (17-21, 22-20, 15-12). The game lasted 52 minutes and it was the longest match of the day. 19-year-old Kozii led the way with five kill blocks towards a match-high 23-point individual tally. With this result, the American duo finished third in the pool and will move on to the sixteenthfinal round. The Ukrainian pair set up a meeting with top-seeded Czechs Jakub Sepka & Matyas Dzavoronok to battle it out for the first place in the pool and a direct ticket to the eighthfinals.

21^st-seeded Barath Sonu & Rajesh Vinayagamoorthy, representing the host nation India, surprised 12^th-seeded Anton Moiseiev & Vitalii Savvin in the first set of their Pool E match, but the young Ukrainians took control to mount a 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-8) comeback with a match-high 32 points from Savvin. On Friday, Moiseiev & Savvin will take on fifth-seeded Norwegians Nils Gunnar Ringoen & Even Stray Aas for a spot in the eighthfinals, while the Indian duo awaits its opponent for the sixteenthfinals.

Pool C also delivered a match with a tie-breaker resolution, in which 19^th-seeded Jacob Brinck & Nicolai Hovmann of Denmark put together a 2-1 (20-22, 21-13, 15-10) upset of 14^th-seeded Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru of Turkiye, also mounting a comeback from a set down. Hovmann impressed with seven kill blocks and two aces, while Brinck put away four serving points to lead the team with a total of 20. The Danish pair will now face third-seeded Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel for the first place in the pool.

In the Pool B final, USA’s Evan Cory & Derek Bradford will be challenged by Slovakia’s Lubos Nemec & Adrian Petruf. The direct pass to the eighthfinals from Pool D will be contested by England’s Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane and Australia’s Oliver Merritt & Jed Walker.

Pools F, G and H were fully stuffed with four teams each and featured two first-leg games each with the winners advancing to Friday’s pool finals. So, in Pool F, USA’s Alex Ukkelberg & Riley Owen will take on Czechia’s Tomas Semerad & Adam Stocek; 2023 U21 world champions Joppe Van Langendonck & Kyan Vercauteren of Belgium will meet Norway’s Syver Klungsoyr & Tobias Pedersen for the first place in Pool G, while the top of Pool H will be contested by India’s highest-ranked pair Abithan Senthilkumar & Udaya Suriyan Poonthamizhan and Lithuania’s Arnas Rumsevicius & Karolis Palubinskas. Eighth-seeded Abithan & Udaya pleased the home crowd with India’s only win of the tournament in either gender so far, a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) shutout of Poland’s Tomasz Woloszuk & Karol Szczepanik.

Friday’s competition day in the men’s main draw will serve off at 08:00 local time (02:30 UTC) with the matches of the second leg of pool play.

Beach Pro Tour Bhubaneswar Challenge: schedule and results

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