Bello & Bello are, in fact, the only men’s team in next week’s Finals to use this week’s Challenge tournament as a warm-up for the big one. The English twins made headlines some three weeks ago, when they topped a Beach Pro Tour podium for the first time on their beach volleyball journey. And they did so at the highest level, the Elite16 tournament in Rio. Previously, they had three bronze medals on the Tour, two from Challenge events and one from a Futures tournament. The Bellos skipped the Challenge tournaments in Haikou two weeks ago and in Chennai last week, but here they are, ready to go at it again, pre-seeded directly in the main draw for Nuvali.
Another duo that made headlines, last week in Chennai as the youngest ever team to win a Challenge event, 19-year-old Jacob Holting Nilsson and 18-year-old Elmer Andersson will be back for more this week and, once again, they will have to start their quest from the qualifiers. The Swedish teens will open the men’s battles on centre court in Nuvali on Thursday at 11:20 local time (03:20 UTC) against Czechia’s Jan Bercik & Vaclav Bercik.
The other Chennai medallists have also taken the flight from India to the Philippines to compete in Nuvali. Runners-up Leon Luini & Ruben Penninga of the Netherlands are pre-seeded seventh in the main draw on entry points, while third-placed Philipp Waller & Timo Hammarberg of Austria top the men’s list with the highest number of entry points. The Haikou bronze medallists from the week before, Italy’s Gianluca Dal Corso & Marco Viscovich, who skipped Chennai, will also return to the Tour in Nuvali.
Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos are second in line on entry points. They are back on Tour for the first time since Rio as well. Two-time Olympian Samuel Schachter of Canada and his new partner Jonathan Pickett will return for the first time since the Joao Pessoa Elite16 in October, when they made their debut together. They are pre-seeded third in the main draw.
Another interesting new pairing to watch in the Nuvali main draw for the first time is that of 41-year-old four-time Austrian Olympian Alexander Horst with Paul Pascariuc, while the recently formed tandem of well-seasoned Americans Taylor Crabb & Theodore Brunner is part of the impressive qualification line-up.
