Beach Pro Tour

Crabb & Brunner, Cory & Caldwell survive tie-breakers to qualify for Chennai main draw

Duos from Brazil, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden and two from Germany also progress from Thursday’s qualifiers

Published 05:05, 21 Nov 2024

Coached by the distinguished Rasmus Jonsson, Swedish teenagers Holting Nilsson & Andersson qualified for their first Challenge-level main draw

The men’s main draw line-up at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge stop in Chennai, India is now complete. Two American teams battled their way through deciding three-setters to advance from Thursday’s qualifiers to Friday’s main draw. Germany also booked two qualifying spots, while one each went to Brazil, Latvia, Slovakia and Sweden.

Watch the Chennai Challenge on VBTV.

Top-seeded Evan Cory & Cody Caldwell of the United States skipped the first qualification round with a bye and in the second managed a hard-fought 2-1 (21-18, 14-21, 15-8) victory over Poland’s Szymon Beta & Filip Lejawa. Meanwhile, their compatriots Taylor Crabb & Theodore Brunner were the lowest seeded team to qualify. Playing under number 23 in the qualification bracket, they started with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) shutout of Norway’s Even Aas & Adrian Mol, but then survived a tie-breaker duel to beat England’s Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane by 2-1 (21-14, 17-21, 15-10).

In another three-setter in the deciding second round, Slovakia’s Lubos Nemec & Adrian Petruf, seeded 18^th, lost a nail-biting second set, but regained control to produce a 2-1 (21-18, 27-29, 15-13) upset of second-seeded Frenchmen Joadel Genevieve-Gardoque & Elouan Chouikh-Barbez. It was the day’s second three-set saga for the Slovakian duo. Earlier in the first round, they managed a 2-1 (25-23, 20-22, 15-10) win over Spain’s Antonio Saucedo & Alvaro Viera.

All the other five successful qualifiers hammered out two straight-set wins each on Thursday.

In their deciding second-round matches, third-seeded Paul Henning & Lui Wust of Germany achieved a 2-0 (22-20, 21-10) shutout of Czechia’s Adam Waber & Matyas Jezek, while their compatriots Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter, seeded ninth, mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) sweep of an all-German clash with Tamo Wust & Tristan Frobel.

Fifth-seeded Swedes Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson, coached by Rasmus Jonsson, who steered David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig to the top of the world, made it to their first Challenge-level main draw. In their second-round game, the Swedish teenagers claimed a 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) victory over France’s Keran Duval & Tom Altwies.

Pedro Sousa & Mateus De Paula Dultra of Brazil, seeded sixth, made the Chennai main draw, following a 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) victory over USA’s Zephyr Dew & Derek Bradford, while 13^th-seeded Ernests Puskundzis & Mihails Samoilovs of Latvia squeezed out a tight 2-0 (21-19, 29-27) upset of fourth-seeded Americans Robert Wyatt Harrison & Timothy Brewster.