Beach Volleyball World Championships Adelaide 2025

Krattiger & Dillier produce stunning shutout of Boermans & De Groot

Mol & Sorum to meet Ehlers & Wickler in remake of Olympic semifinal

Published 01:21, 19 Nov 2025

Krattiger/Dillier (SUI) vs. Boermans/de Groot (NED) - Round of 32 #72924648

Ecstatic Krattiger & Dillier rejoice after knocking out Boermans & De Groot

Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier produced the most shocking result of the sixteenthfinals of the men’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Adelaide by knocking out second-seeded Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands, as the full line-up for Thursday’s eighthfinals took shape on Wednesday. In the most interesting match-up, Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum and Germany’s Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler will offer a remake of last year’s Olympic semifinal at Paris 2024.

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Krattiger & Dillier, seeded 24^th in the 48-team draw, hammered out a stunning 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) shutout of one of the main candidates for medals in Australia, second-seeded Boermans & De Groot. The Swiss dominated most of the first set to take it by a wide margin. They stayed in control through most of the second set, but the Dutch caught up in the money time. Still, Krattiger & Dillier converted their first match point to victory and advanced to the eighthfinals. Krattiger led the way with four kill blocks and two aces towards a match-high 22 points. Dillier added another 14, also delivering two aces towards the win.

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The Swiss pair will face another big obstacle on the way to the quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Brazilians Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci, who were pushed deep into the overtime of a nail-biting tie-breaker as they faced 30^th-seeded Bradley Fuller & Ben O'Dea of New Zealand in their sixteenthfinal earlier on Wednesday, but survived to celebrate a 2-1 (21-15, 17-21, 25-23) victory after 57 minutes of play. Evandro contributed five aces, five kill blocks and 10 points in attack, while Artur Lanci led the team with 24 points, all in swings. Fuller was the best scorer of the match with 27 points.

The world’s number one team, top-seeded Mol & Sorum, also had to battle it through three sets to advance to the eighthfinals. They came back from a set down against 35^th-seeded Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett to take a 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-11) win. Mol raised six kill blocks and fired four aces towards a match-high 22 points.

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14^th-seeded Ehlers & Wickler took out Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots in straight sets, 2-0 (22-20, 21-13), with a match-high 21 points from Ehlers, including two aces and a block. Last year, when Mol & Sorum met Ehlers & Wickler in the Paris 2024 semifinals, the Germans achieved a three-set victory and went on to claim Olympic silver, while the defending Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions had to settled for bronze. Ehlers & Wickler also shut out Mol & Sorum in their most recent encounter at the Gstaad Elite in July.

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One more Norwegian-German clashed shaped up for the eighthfinals. 20^th-seeded Germans Lukas Pfretzschner & Sven Winter delivered a 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) upset of 12^th-seeded home favorites, Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher. Winter served as many as six aces and topped the match chart with a total of 23 points. On Thursday, Pfretzschner & Winter will take on 23^rd-seeded Norwegians Hendrik Mol & Mathias Berntsen, who mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) sweep of their sixteenthfinal against Austria’s Christoph Dressler & Philipp Waller. Mol was the best scorer of the match with 18 points, including three blocks and an ace.

The third German team in the sixteenthfinals, Paul Henning & Lui Wust, failed to follow suit and got eliminated by seventh-seeded Swedes Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson, who put together a 2-0 (23-21, 21-17) victory. Holting Nilsson led the way with five kill blocks, two aces and 15 points in attack. In the eighthfinals, the Swedes will meet Brazil’s Andre Stein & Renato Lima, who opened Wednesday’s competition day with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) shutout of Austria’s Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger, with a match-high 21 points from Renato, including four aces.