Åhman and Hellvig, who won Beach Pro Tour Elite16 events in Tepic and Hamburg this season, qualified to compete at last year’s World Championships, in Rome, but had to withdraw a few days before the start of the event due to an injury, which postponed their debut in the tournament to 2023.
"It feels really good to have won in our World Championships debut," said Hellvig, who celebrated his 22nd birthday on the eve of the match. "I thought our passing was very strong and that helped us have a powerful offense too. We expect our next matches to be more challenging, so we'll need to be even more focused going forward."
The other match of the day in Pool B saw Australia’s Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert defeat Portugal’s Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa also in two sets (21-18, 21-18). Åhman and Hellvig will face the Portuguese on Sunday and the Australians on Monday.
Beach Volleyball World Championships - Match Schedule and Results
Pools A, C, D, E, H, I and L also had duels scheduled for the opening day of the event, with pools F, G, J and K set to hold their first matches on Saturday.
In one of them, in Pool A, defending champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway started their title defense on the right foot, producing a two-set (21-13, 21-9) triumph over Mozambique’s Ainadino Martinho and Jorge Monjane in Huamantla. The reigning Olympic and world champions will be back on the court on Saturday, to face Italians Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi, who upset Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot with a 2-1 (10-21, 23-21, 15-12) victory.
