The field for the second elimination round in Mexico is now finalized.
Mexico’s Antonio Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala continue their successful run at the Veracruz Challenge.
Mexican teenage beach volleyball duo, Antonio Lares and Carlos Andres Ayala, continued their impressive winning streak at the Veracruz Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. With three consecutive victories, they have successfully navigated the qualification rounds from Wednesday and secured their spot in Saturday`s eighthfinals.
Last year, Lares and Carlos Andres reached the semifinals of the FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships, but qualifying for a Beach Pro Tour main draw had eluded them until this week. On Friday, the 19-year-old local favorites, seeded 29th in the 32-team main draw, earned a direct entry into the second knockout round by defeating the 20th-seeded Spanish pair of four-time Olympian Adrian Gavira and Alejandro Huerta. Their thrilling 2-1 victory (21-17, 17-21, 15-13) placed them at the top of Pool D. Lares was a standout performer, contributing 27 points with seven kill blocks and two aces. Carlos Andres added another 15 points, while Huerta was the match`s top scorer with 34 points.
Match Highlights: Lares/Carlos Andres vs. Huerta A./Gavira (October 3, 2025)
In Saturday`s eighthfinals, the young Mexican team will face Switzerland`s Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan, the 14th seeds, who secured their spot by finishing third in Pool C and then sweeping their sixteenthfinal match against Italy`s Enrico Rossi and Marco Viscovich with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-12) win. Meanwhile, Huerta and Gavira recovered from their loss, shutting out Austrian duo Alexander Horst (a four-time Olympian and 2017 World Championship silver medalist) and Moritz Pristauz 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) in the sixteenthfinals. They will now face another Austrian team, Christoph Dressler and Philipp Waller, in the quarterfinals. Dressler and Waller, seeded 10th, topped Pool G with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) victory over Chile`s seventh-seeded Vicente Droguett and Fernando Quintero in the pool final.
Video: Pedrosa/Campos vs. Harrison/Caldwell – Pool Play Highlights
In the Pool B final, 18th-seeded American pair Robert Wyatt Harrison and Cody Caldwell pulled off a 2-1 (12-21, 21-17, 15-13) upset against second-seeded Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos, advancing directly to the eighthfinals. There, they will compete against 19th-seeded Swiss duo Yves Haussener and Julian Friedli. The Swiss team bounced back from a 2-0 (21-16, 21-11) loss to third-seeded Brazilians George Wanderley and Saymon Barbosa in the Pool C final by securing a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) victory over Danish qualifiers Mads Mollgaard and Nicolai Houmann in the sixteenthfinals. George and Saymon will take on 31st-seeded Norwegian qualifiers Nils Gunnar Ringoen and Even Stray Aas, who surprisingly defeated 12th-seeded Italians Manuel Alfieri and Alex Ranghieri 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) in the first knockout round.
Video: George/Saymon vs. Haussener/Friedli – Pool Play Highlights
Another Italian team, 22nd-seeded Samuele Cottafava and Gianluca Dal Corso, also reached the eighthfinals after a hard-fought 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 19-17) upset against Pedrosa and Campos in a sixteenthfinal match. Their next opponents will be fifth-seeded Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik, who had previously shut out Alfieri and Ranghieri 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) in the Pool E final. In the men`s tournament`s longest match to date, England`s Joaquin Bello and Javier Bello achieved a 2-1 (28-30, 21-18, 15-10) comeback win over Droguett and Quintero after 57 minutes in the sixteenthfinals. They now advance to face top-seeded Americans Miles Evans and Chase Budinger in the eighthfinals. Evans and Budinger secured their spot with a decisive 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) sweep against Rossi and Viscovich in the Pool A final.
Video: Budinger/Evans vs. Rossi/Viscovich – Pool Play Highlights
Ruben Penninga and Matthew Immers of the Netherlands also required three sets to triumph in their sixteenthfinal match against Israel`s Eylon Elazar and Kevin Cuzmiciov. Following their 2-1 (14-21, 21-17, 15-13) win, the Dutch pair will challenge sixth-seeded Germans Jonas Sagstetter and Benedikt Sagstetter. The German duo had previously defeated Chile`s Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt 2-0 (21-19, 21-13) in the Pool F winners` match. The Grimalts, however, bounced back with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-10) shutout against American qualifiers Lev Priima and Ryan Wilcox, setting up an eighthfinal clash with Canada`s Chaim Schalk and James Shaw. Shaw and Schalk had won Pool H after a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) final sweep against Penninga and Immers.
Saturday`s men`s schedule at the Veracruz Challenge includes the eighthfinals, commencing at 09:00 local time (15:00 UTC), followed by the quarterfinals later in the day.
Oliver Wrenwick