The men’s tournament in Xiamen will be marked by the return of 2025 world champion and two-time Olympian David Schweiner to the Beach Pro Tour, but for the first time with his new partner Tadeas Trousil. Back in January, Ondrej Perusic withdrew from Czechia’s leading team and ended his career as a professional player, while his partner David Schweiner presented 24-year-old Trousil as his new teammate. The newly formed Czech pairing, however, has not appeared on the 2026 Beach Pro Tour yet and chose Xiamen to make its Tour debut. It will not be the first time Schweiner & Trousil compete together in a major international tournament. Previously, the duo took part in the 2023 CEV European Championship in Vienna, where it reached the eighthfinals. The Czech pair leads the Xiamen men’s main draw pre-seeding on entry points.
The men’s competition in China will feature a strong men’s lineup, starring a number of other Olympians.
The stellar presence in Xiamen will be highlighted by Austrian standout Alexander Horst. The 43-year-old veteran, a 2017 FIVB World Championship silver medalist and a four-time Olympian, will compete in China alongside his current partner Paul Pascariuc. They finished fifth at the last Challenge event in Nayarit. Horst’s previous teammate – Paris 2024 Olympian Julian Horl – will also play in Xiamen with his current teammate Laurenc Grossig. They took fifth place in Tlaxcala. Another pair of Austrian veterans – Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympians Alexander Huber & Robin Seidl – are also in the mix for Xiamen, but they will have to start their campaign from Wednesday’s qualifiers.
Another four players, who have made it to the Olympic Games, are set to shine in the men’s main draw this week with their current teammates. Poland’s Piotr Kantor, who played at Rio de Janeiro 2016 and at Tokyo 2020, will hit the Chinese sand alongside Filip Lejawa. Italy’s Alex Ranghieri, also a two-time Olympian, at Rio 2016 and Paris 2024, is coming in with Manuel Alfieri, while Tokyo Olympian Adrian Heidrich of Switzerland and Paris Olympian Thomas Hodges of Australia will take to the Xiamen Challenge with Yves Haussener and Ben Hood, respectively.
All these Olympic standouts will be in the strong company of many other established or up-and-coming stars, looking to find their way to the next Olympic Games at Los Angeles 2028.
The Xiamen Challenge tournament will be conducted with a 32-team main draw in each gender. It starts on Wednesday with the qualification rounds with eight teams progressing to the main draw and joining the 24 directly seeded. The main draw begins on Thursday with modified pool play, with eight pools of four teams each, playing two pool semifinals, a losers’ match and a winners’ match to determine the final standings. The teams that finish third in the pools will take on the runners-up of other pools in the sixteenthfinal single elimination round, the winners of which will move to the eighthfinal round, where they will challenge the eight pool winners. Quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will follow to determine the final standings.
Men’s action in Xiamen is about to get underway with Wednesday’s qualification tournament, serving off at 09:00 local time (01:00 UTC).
