Evan Cory & Cody Caldwell, who produced headlines last week by making their way from the Haikou Challenge qualifiers all the way to the top of the podium, will try to continue their winning run this week in Chennai. The American duo, however, will have to start from the qualifiers again. They are the top-seeded team in the qualification bracket and their first match on Thursday is against 32-seeded representatives of the host country, Rama Krishna Dhawaskar & Nitin Kashinath Sawant. The game is part of the last session of the men’s first qualification round and is scheduled to start at 14:00 local time (08:30 UTC).
Another US pair will play in the opening game of the men’s qualifiers. Theodore Brunner, who has been competing alongside Trevor Crabb, will now test the sand in partnership with Trevor’s brother, Taylor Crabb. They will take to the sand in India at 08:00 (02:30) for a game against Germany’s Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter.
Cory & Caldwell and Crabb & Brunner are just two of as many as four American duos to compete in the men’s qualifications in Chennai. A fifth one, that of 38-year-old Rio 2016 Olympian Chaim Schalk with James Shaw, is set to start directly from the main draw, hoping to improve from the seventh place they took in Haikou.
The main draw line-up is headed by Austria’s Philipp Waller & Timo Hammarberg, pre-seeded first on entry points. Just days ago, upon their Beach Pro Tour debut as a team, they finished ninth at the Rio de Janeiro Elite16.
Second on entry points are Australian Paris 2024 Olympians Thomas Hodges & Zachery Schubert, who finished Haikou Challenge runners-up last week. Another recently shaped Austrian pair, Christoph Dressler & Tim Berger, are pre-seeded third.
One more participant in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, Frenchman Remi Bassereau, will compete in the Chennai main draw, in a tandem with experienced Calvin Aye. The newly-formed duo debuted on the Beach Pro Tour last week with a fifth-place finish in Haikou.
Following Thursday’s two rounds of qualifications, Chennai Challenge main draw action will get underway on Friday.
