This week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite event in Quintana Roo, Mexico, is serving as the stage for the debut of several new teams in the international scene and one of them, formed by Dutch Olympians Alexander Brouwer and Steven van de Velde, couldn’t have hoped for a better start than the one they had on Thursday.

The Dutch won a pair of matches in Playa del Carmen and advanced, alongside five other duos, to the Round of 12 of the tournament, getting the Friday off - pool play will be completed with matches starting at 9:00 local time (14:00 GMT), followed by the Round of 18.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Quintana Roo Elite live on VBTV

A two-time Olympian and a Rio 2016 bronze medalist, the 35-year-old Brouwer joined the 30-year-old Van de Velde, who represented the Netherlands at the Paris Olympics, after his longtime partner Robert Meeuwsen announced his retirement at the end of the 2024 season.

In their very first match as partners, on Thursday morning in Mexico, they were faced with Van de Velde’s former teammate, Matthew Immers, and his new companion, Ruben Penninga. The all-Dutch Pool B opener had Brouwer and Van de Velde emerging victorious in straight sets (21-17, 21-15).

Several hours later, the Dutch returned to the sand to play for the first place in the pool and a spot in the Round of 12 and got the better of Argentinean brothers Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso, coming from behind to win 2-1 (25-27, 25-15, 15-7).

In the last match of the pool, scheduled for 10:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Friday, Immers and Penninga will face Argentineans Bautista Amieva and Maciel Bueno, who lost to the Capogrossos, with the winners making it to the Round of 18 and the losers being eliminated.

VW Beach Pro Tour Quintana Roo Elite: Match Schedule and Results

German qualifiers upset Olympians

Among the five other pool winners, the most surprising ones were arguably German qualifiers Paul Henning and Lui Wüst, who defeated two teams with Olympic experience to top Pool E. The Europeans started the day with a sweep (22-20, 21-11) of Cubans Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo and ended it beating the Chilean Grimalt cousins Marco and Esteban 2-1 (21-12, 15-21, 15-13).

Americans Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, who also started in the qualifier, delivered two strong performances to dominate Pool F, beating the English Bello twins Javier and Joaquin 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) in their first main draw match and coming from behind to overcome Austrians Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller 2-1 (20-22, 22-20, 15-6) in the second.

Pool A had a much more predictable outcome, with reigning Olympic champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden cruising to secure first place. The Swedish jump setters started their campaign in Mexico with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) win over the German Sagstetter brothers Jonas and Benedikt and continued it with another sweep (21-8, 21-14), this one over Italians Samuele Cottafava and Gianluca Dal Corso.

Pool C also had unsurprising winners, with reigning world champions Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner emerging in first place. The winners of last week's Yucatán Challenge, the Czechs downed Brazilians Adrielson dos Santos and Arthur Mariano 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) in their first match of the day and topped German qualifiers Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter also in two sets (21-16, 21-17) later.

The sixth and last pool winners were Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen, who defeated Mexicans Miguel Sarabia and Jorman Osuna 2-1 (21-15, 22-24, 15-6) and Latvians Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) to dominate Pool D.

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