Men’s qualification battles go to the wire

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Austria’s Müllner/Petutschnig are through to round two of qualification! Photocredit: Martin Steinthaler.

We didn’t expect anything less! The beginning of the men’s tournament started with a bang with some super competitive action at the A1 Major Klagenfurt.

Seven of the 16 first qualification matches went the distance as teams fought tooth and nail to stay in the world’s most famous beach volleyball tournament.

One of the marathon matches was first up on Center Court as the loyal Austrian fans got to see a battle between two teams from the home nation. In a 54-minute epic, Ermacora/Pristauz-Telsnigg came from a set down to beat Eglseer/Schnetzer.

On Court four meanwhile, the longest match of the morning saw Brazilians Marcio Guadie/Vinicius defeat Spain’s Marco/Garciá 2-1 in 56 minutes.

However, it wasn’t all ding-dong battles on the court – American brothers Trevor and Taylor Crabb swept aside New Zealand’s Muller/Hirini 2-0 in just 29 minutes, while it took Serbian duo Basta/Kolaric a minute even less to thump Australia’s Durant/Schubert.

The women’s Pool Play is now under way as the men take a break before they resume their second qualification phase at 2pm today.

For the full draw and for up-to-date results, download the A1 Beach App for IOS and Android (available in Austria only) and don’t forget you can watch every game on fabulous live stream! Enjoy!