Yves Haussener & Julian Friedli continued their victorious march through the Yucatan Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour on Saturday. Starting from Wednesday’s qualifications, the Swiss duo is already set to compete in Sunday’s semifinals, where they will take on Austria’s Christoph Dressler & Philipp Waller. In the other semifinal in Puerto Progreso in Mexico, Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos will take on reigning world champions Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner of Czechia.
Beach Pro Tour
Qualifiers Haussener & Friedli push through to Yucatan semis
The Swiss to take on Dressler & Waller; Pedrosa & Campos against Perusic & Schweiner in the other semifinal
Published 05:57, 23 Mar 2025
Switzerland’s Julian Friedli
- Watch the Yucatan Challenge on VBTV.
Seeded 26th in the 32-team main draw, Haussener & Friedli persevered through two epic three-setters on Saturday to make the last four of the tournament. Each of the three sets of their eighthfinal duel with 16th-seeded Germans Philipp Huster & Maximilian Just was pushed to overtime and the Swiss team eventually celebrated a 2-1 (23-21, 22-24, 17-15) victory. Friedli put up an impressive nine kill blocks towards a 29-point match high. In the quarterfinals, after losing an extended first set to Brazilian qualifiers Adelmo Folha & Mateus Dultra, Haussener & Friedli turned things around to a 2-1 (21-23, 21-17, 15-13) win, with Friedli leading the way again with a match-high 25 points.
17th-seeded Dressler & Waller started their day with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-13) upset of second-seeded Chilean cousins Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt. While Marco Grimalt’s six kill blocks could not stop the Austrians in the match, Dressler topped the scorers’ chart with 20 points, including four blocks and an ace. Dressler & Waller then went on to deliver another upset, a 2-1 (21-19, 20-22, 15-6) victory over ninth-seeded Swedish rising stars Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson. Dressler was the best scorer of that game too, contributing 25 points towards his team’s success.
Haussener & Friedli and Dressler & Waller will lock horns in the second of the two men’s semifinals on Sunday, starting at 11:00 local time (17:00 UTC). Pedrosa & Campos will meet Perusic & Schweiner in the first an hour earlier, at 10:00 (16:00).
In their eighthfinal game on Saturday, 23rd-seeded Pedrosa & Campos produced a 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-8) win over Brazilian qualifiers Pedro Oliveira & Renato Lima. Campos and Pedro shared the top scorer honors with 24 points each, while Pedrosa led the Portuguese’ blocking effort with five stuffs. Pedrosa & Campos then swept their quarterfinal with top-seeded Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo, hammering out a convincing 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) shutout on the wings of six kill blocks, three aces and a match-high total of 21 points from Pedrosa.
World champs Perusic & Schweiner achieved two straight-set victories on Saturday. This way, the fifth-seeded Czechs emerged as the highest ranked team to reach the semifinals. First, they knocked out third-seeded Samuele Cottafava & Gianluca Dal Corso of Italy in a 2-0 (21-13, 22-20) eighthfinal. Perusic chipped in with four aces to finish with 17 points and top the scorers chart jointly with Dal Corso, who managed to string up as many as six kill blocks. In their quarterfinal, Perusic & Schweiner mastered a 2-0 (21-6, 21-19) victory over France’s Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat. This time Schweiner was the best scorer of the match with 18 points, including four blocks, while Perusic fired another three aces from the serving line.
The medal matches are also set to take place on Sunday. The third-place game starts at 14:00 (20:00), and the gold medal showdown is scheduled at 15:00 (23:00).
