21-year-old Timo Hammarberg and 20-year-old Tim Berger made a sensational sweep of their pool at the Brasilia Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour on Thursday. The Austrian pairing that emerged from Wednesday’s qualifiers, delivered two victories over powerful opponents and flew straight into the second elimination round along with the other five pool winners – Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum and Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol, Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso, Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak and Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots. Thursday’s program in the men’s competition in Brazil offered the first leg of pool play and the pool finals. The survival battles for the third places in the pools will take place on Friday morning.

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Playing in an Elite main draw only for the second time as a team, Hammarberg & Berger, seeded 22^nd in the 24-team bracket, started their day with a huge 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) upset of third-seeded Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands, capitalizing on the abundant opponent errors in this Pool C opener. Hammarberg led the way with 19 points, including four kill blocks and an ace. In the first place game in the pool, the young Austrians met another powerful opponent, Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci, and produced another sensation – a 2-1 (18-21, 24-22, 15-11) comeback – which is even more stunning given that this is the second time they beat this opponent at this level, after last year’s Hamburg Elite16 upset in pool play. Contributing 21 points apiece, Hammarberg impressed with seven kill blocks, while Berger fired three aces towards the victory. It was the day’s second three-setter for the Brazilian team, after a tough 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-10) victory over mighty Dutchmen Steven van de Velde & Alexander Brouwer in the first leg.

The list of the day’s surprises doesn’t end there. Canadian qualifiers Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett, seeded 21^st, opened their main draw campaign with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) stunner of fourth-seeded Cubans Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo in Pool D. In the other pool opener, Norway’s Berntsen & Mol claimed a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win over young Swedish qualifiers Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson and followed it up with a 2-0 (21-12, 23-21) victory over Schachter & Picket to win the pool and jump to the round of 12.

Another team emerging from the qualifiers, 19^th-seeded American Olympians Miles Evans & Chase Budinger, started their Pool F campaign with a tight 2-0 (22-20, 21-19) victory over sixth-seeded Adrielson Dos Santos & Arthur Da Silva of Brazil. Seventh-seeded Latvians Plavins & Fokerots won that pool after a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) shutout of Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos and a hard-earned 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 17-15) win over Evans & Budinger.

Lucky losers Julian Horl & Moritz Pristauz of Austria put up quite a fight against top-seeded tournament favorites Mol & Sorum, but the two-time Olympic medalists took out a 2-1 (21-14, 16-21, 15-8) victory, following it up with an emphatic 2-0 (21-11, 21-8) sweep of the Pool A final against Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt. Before that, the Chilean cousins squeezed out a nail-biting 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 20-18) win over Ruben Penninga & Matthew Immers of the Netherlands.

In Pool B, the second-seeded Capogrosso brothers lived up to their status and topped the standings after a 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) shutout of Chilean qualifiers Fernando Quintero & Vicente Droguett and a nail-biting 2-0 (24-22, 23-21) win over Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher. In their opening game, the Aussies produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) victory over Italy’s Samuele Cottafava & Gianluca Dal Corso.

Fifth-seeded Bryl & Losiak cruised through Pool E with two convincing shutouts - 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) over Brazilian qualifiers Pedro Oliveira & Renato Lima and 2-0 (21-9, 21-13) over American Olympians Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh. Before that, Partain & Benesh won an all-American duel with Chaim Schalk & James Shaw by 2-0 (21-19, 21-14).

Friday’s competition program opens at 09:00 local time (12:00 UTC).

VW Beach Pro Tour Brasilia Elite: schedule and results

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