The Brasilia Elite men’s main draw is all set for its start on Thursday. The remaining nine vacancies were taken up by the winners of the eight qualifying matches and a lucky loser team as the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event started in the Brazilian capital on Wednesday. In the most interesting match of the day, two home pairs put up a three-set battle with Pedro Oliveira & Renato Lima securing the main draw spot after edging fellow Brazilians Gabriel Santiago & Felipe Alves.
Elite16 - Brasilia, Brazil - 2025
Pedro & Renato win all-Brazilian qualifier to make Brasilia Elite main draw
Two teams each from USA and Austria, and one each from Canada, Chile, Portugal and Sweden also qualify
Published 08:25, 16 Apr 2025
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The all-Brazilian clash was the only three-setter in the men’s qualifiers on Wednesday. At the end of the tie-breaker, third-seeded Pedro & Renato celebrated a 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-10) victory, despite the six kill blocks raised by Felipe Alves. Pedro was the best scorer of the match with 21 points, including 17 kills in attack and four blocks. Pedro & Renato will start their main draw appearance in Pool E with a match against Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak.
The United States was the only nation that managed to push two winning men’s duos through the Brasilia Elite qualifiers and they both knocked out Brazilian opponents. Second-seeded Chaim Schalk & James Shaw produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) shutout of Vitor Felipe & Gustavo Carvalhaes (Guto), while Paris 2024 Olympians Miles Evans & Chase Budinger delivered a tight 2-0 (26-24, 21-19) win over Vinicius Freitas & Heitor Barbosa. Schalk & Shaw will face fellow Americans Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh in their first Pool E match, and Evans & Budinger will take on Brazil’s Adrielson Dos Santos & Arthur Da Silva in Pool F.
Another Brazilian pair, George Wanderley & Saymon Barbosa, was eliminated by top-seeded Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson. The Swedish rising stars, aged 20 and 18, respectively, achieved a 2-0 (21-14, 23-21) victory and will next meet Norway’s Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol in Pool D.
The lowest ranked team in the qualification bracket that made it to the main draw were Fernando Quintero & Vicente Droguett. The 12th-seeded Chileans managed a 2-0 (21-17, 25-23) upset of fifth-seeded Frenchmen Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and ended up in Pool B with Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso as their first main draw opponents.
11th-seeded Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger won the all-Austrian duel with sixth-seeded Julian Horl & Moritz Pristauz by a convincing 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) to advance to Pool C and an encounter with Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands. However, Horl & Pristauz also progressed as the lucky losers taking up the spot vacated with the withdrawal of Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig. They will have a tough fist challenge against top-seeded Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway in Pool A.
In what was the speediest victory of the day, fourth-seeded Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos of Portugal hammered out a 2-0 (21-10, 21-17) shutout of Argentina’s Juan Amieva & Maciel Bueno in just 29 minutes to set up an appointment with Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots in Pool F.
Canada’s Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett also found a quick resolution of their game against Bryce Mayer & Tyler Penberthy of the Virgin Islands and advanced to the main draw after a 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) sweep. The Canadians will open their main draw campaign with a Pool D game against Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo.
Men’s main draw action will get underway on Thursday, starting at 09:00 local time (12:00 UTC).
