They had to work hard for it, but Chilean Marco and Esteban Grimalt had a successful day in Edmonton, Canada, on Friday, when the main draw of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge tournament held in the city began.

The Chilean cousins won a pair of tie-breakers at the Fan Park and were among the six men’s teams that topped their pools and advanced to the Round of 16 of the event.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge live on VBTV

Coming from a fifth-place finish at the Gstaad Elite16 two weeks ago, Marco, 34, and Esteban, 32, kept their good form in Edmonton, prevailing in a pair of tough duels against European teams to finish at the top of Pool B.

In their first match in Edmonton, the Grimalts had to grind to secure a 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-8) victory over Germans Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter. Later, in the ‘pool final’, the South Americans had some difficulties against the new Dutch team of Christiaan Varenhorst and Leon Luini at the start, but again managed to pull off a win, beating their opponents in the tie-breaker (14-21, 21-13, 15-13).

**Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge – Match Schedule and Results**

Pool A winners were Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava, who only had to play one match on Friday. The two produced a 2-1 (25-23, 19-21, 16-14) win over Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira in their first encounter and won the second by forfeit as Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes couldn’t get on the court to play.

The United States had two teams topping their pools in Edmonton. One of them was formed by Tri Bourne and his Canadian-born partner Chaim Schalk, who were the top duo in Pool E. The Americans started the day with a three-set (25-23, 18-21, 15-11) win over Swiss Adrian Heidrich and Leo Dillier and ended it with a sweep (21-16, 21-18) of Australians Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis.

Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander were the other American tandem to finish first in their Pool, F. After posting two wins on Thursday’s qualifier, they got another two on Friday, in the main draw, overcoming Canadians Arran Chambers and Liam Kopp in straight sets (21-16, 21-15) and Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik in the tie-breaker (21-19, 17-21, 16-14).

Also coming from the qualifier, Austrians Martin Ermacora and Philipp Waller were the top team in Pool D. The two started the main draw with a big two-set (21-18, 21-18) victory against Espinho Challenge winners Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb of the United States and maintained the good form in the second match of the day, overcoming Norwegians Mathias Berntsen and Hendrik Mol in another two-setter (21-18, 21-13).

The sixth and last pool winners in Edmonton were young French Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar. The 2021 U19 world champions beat two Australian teams in their pool play campaign, squeezing a three-set (18-21, 21-14, 18-16) win against Thomas Hodges and Zach Schubert in their first encounter and dominating Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett to a sweep (21-17, 21-10) in their second match of the day.

With 18 of the 24 teams that started the tournament still in contention, the elimination rounds begin on Saturday – the Round of 18, Round of 16 and quarterfinals will be played during the day. The semifinals and medal matches will be held on Sunday in Edmonton.

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