As pool winners, all four of the semifinalists started their Saturday programmes straight from the second elimination round.
Competing in a Challenge tournament main draw for the first time, 19-year-old Holting Nilsson and 18-year-old Andersson, seeded 19th, started their day with a nail-biting 2-0 (24-22, 27-25) upset of fifth-seeded Frenchmen Remi Bassereau & Calvin Aye, and followed up with another straight-setter in the last round before the semifinals, 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) over Latvia’s Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics.
Third-seeded Waller & Hammarberg stopped USA’s Evan Cory & Cody Caldwell in their quest for a second successful tournament with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) shutout to make their first Beach Pro Tour semifinal together. They collected a record good enough to line up as one of the two teams that qualified straight to the semis without playing in the third knockout round.
14th-seeded Luini & Penninga were the other one. In their second-round match, the Dutch duo achieved a 2-0 (21-15, 23-21) victory over German qualifiers Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter.
Top-seeded Hodges & Schubert had to battle through two three-set comebacks on Saturday to qualify for the semifinals on Sunday. First, they mounted a narrow 2-1 (15-21, 21-14, 17-15) victory over Estonia’s Mart Tiisaar & Dimitriy Korotkov. Then, they delivered a 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-12) win over USA’s Chaim Schalk & James Shaw.
In the men’s semifinals on Sunday, Holting Nilsson & Andersson and Waller & Hammarberg will be the first to get into battle at 10:00 local time (04:30 UTC). Hodges & Schubert and Luini & Penninga will take to the sand an hour later. The bronze medal match is at 17:30 (12:00) and the gold medal showdown will start at 18:30 (13:00).
