Germany’s Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler and Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig advanced to the semifinals of the men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament in Paris on Thursday. On Tuesday afternoon, they won their quarterfinals against Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot and Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano, respectively, to get to within a win from the Olympic podium.

Third-seeded Ehlers & Wickler showed their high class again and mastered a 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) victory over their strong Dutch opponents, seventh-seeded Boermans & De Groot. The German duo have now extended their winning streak at Paris 2024 to five consecutive victories, having dropped only a set along the way.

In the first set, the Dutch managed to wipe out the five-point deficit they had at 17-12 and even step in front at 19-18. The Germans kept their focus, regained control and took the set at their second set point on a net touch fault by Boermans. The second set was way more one-sided. After 4-4, Ehlers & Wickler took the lead for good and never looked back. It was once again a Dutch error, this time on De Groot’s serve, that produced the match winner for Germany.

The Germans clearly outplayed the Dutch on all counts. Ehlers led the way with five kill blocks and three aces towards a match-high 20 points, while Wickler supported him with another 12 points, including two aces. Boermans and De Groot scored 14 and 13 points, respectively.

“We were quite nervous, but I screamed it all off during the game,” Ehlers told the FIVB after the match. “It’s amazing to play here, in front of this crowd, and I am so happy that we have the chance to play two more times. We got so much support from the stands! The indoor volleyballers were here supporting us, family and friends too. So it feels even more amazing to win.”

“It was an unbelievable match! It was such a cool game!” Wickler added. “I was also nervous the whole match, even when we were five points in front. I know that the Netherlands’ team, Stefan and Yorick, are so strong. In the first set they came back from five points behind. So you are never safe. You have to go forward all the time. We tried to push with good solutions in attack and good serves and it worked out in the end.”

Ehlers & Wickler will find out whom they will meet in Thursday’s semifinals at the end of Wednesday’s quarterfinal clash between Spain’s Pablo Herrera & Adrian Gavira and reigning Olympic champions Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway.

Top-seeded Ahman & Hellvig dominated their quarterfinal match against eighth-seeded Evandro & Arthur to produce a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) sweep and claim a spot in the semifinals. The number one team in the FIVB World Ranking, dubbed the Swedish jump-setters, are now on a 3-2 win-loss record at the Olympics.

Ahman & Hellvig stormed the match on a 4-0 run and did not give up control of the scoreboard throughout the first set. Evandro & Artur kept up the fight and managed to get back to within one on a couple of occasions. They even denied the first two set points for the opponents before a serving error ended it at 21-17. The situation did not change much in the second set. The Swedish pair stayed in the lead from the start through the end, which came at 21-16 on a kill by Ahman in attack.

Hellvig was on fire at the net to put away 14 kills in offence and five kill blocks. Adding three aces to his tally, he topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 22 points. Ahman added another 10, all in attack, while Evandro was the Brazilian team’s leading scorer with 18 points.

In their semifinal, Ahman & Hellvig will meet the winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinal between Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan and USA’s Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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