The first phase of the men’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Australia was completed on Monday after four competition days. The 24 teams that finished first or second in their pools qualified straight to the sixteenthfinals along with the four best-ranked third-placed teams in the final pool standings – Chile’s Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt, Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig, USA’s Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh and Argentina’s Juan Amieva & Maciel Bueno. The other eight third-placed teams formed the four fixtures for Tuesday’s first playoff round - the round of 36, dubbed “the lucky loser round”, to fill the remaining four vacancies in the sixteenthfinals. The 12 teams that finished bottom of their pools were eliminated from the tournament.

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The last match on the Pool I program offered a three-set all-American duel that finalized the standings in the pool. Despite losing by 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-9) to compatriots Chaim Schalk & James Shaw, Miles Evans & Chase Budinger finished on top of the table on a 2-1 win-loss record and a better point ratio than Schalk & Shaw, who settled for second place. Ruben Penninga & Matthew Immers of the Netherlands also surpassed Australia’s D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse for the third place on point ratios as both teams ended up on 1-2. The Aussies are out, while the Dutch advanced to Tuesday’s round of 36, where they will meet Canada’s Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett, placed third in Pool K.

Schachter & Pickett registered their first win in Adelaide, 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) over Mozambique’s Jose Mondlane & Osvaldo Mungoi, enough to stay in the tournament. Argentina’s Tomas Capogrosso & Nicolas Capogrosso remained unbeaten and secured the first place in Pool K with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) shutout of Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler of Germany, who finished second on 2-1.

In Pool E, fifth-seeded Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak of Poland topped the standings undefeated after mastering a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) win over Germany’s Lukas Pfretzschner & Sven Winter in the deciding battle for the first place. Austria’s Christoph Dressler & Philipp Waller, on the other hand, moved on to the first elimination round on Tuesday, after a 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) sweep of the survival match for the third place in the pool against China’s Wang Yanwei & Du Hongjun. The Austrians will face Norway’s Markus Mol & Adrian Mol from Pool B.

The young Beachvolley Vikings squeezed out a nail-biting 2-1 (19-21, 22-20, 15-13) victory over Australia’s Luke Ryan & Zachery Schubert in a deciding battle for the third place in Pool B to stay alive in the tournament. The other Norwegian pair in the pool, Hendrik Mol & Mathias Berntsen produced a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) upset of second-seeded Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands to top the pool table undefeated.

France’s Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat put together a 2-1 (21-16, 12-21, 15-13) upset of seventh-seeded Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson of Sweden and finished first in Pool G with three tie-breaker victories. The Swedes will join them into the sixteenthfinals as pool runners-up on a 2-1 win-loss record. England’s Javier Bello & Joaquin Bello qualified for the round of 36 after earning a hard-fought 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 16-14) victory over Australia’s Ben Hood & Oliver Merritt in the direct battle for the third place in the pool. The English twins will take on New Zealand’s Bradley Fuller & Ben O'Dea from Pool F for a spot in the sixteenthfinals.

In the other first knockout round match-up, Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich & Jonathan Jordan from Pool A will challenge Austria’s Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger from Pool J.

The first men’s playoff match on Tuesday will serve off at 13:30 local time (03:00 UTC).

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: schedule and results

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