Partners in the most recent international victories in their careers, Pedro Solberg and Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes will have another opportunity to share the top of the podium on Sunday, when they compete on the last day of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge.

The Brazilians advanced to the semifinals of the event held at the Fan Park, in Canada, and will compete with duos from Portugal, Italy and Norway for the title of the sixth Challenge tournament of the 2023 season.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge live on VBTV

Pedro and Guto will play Portuguese sensations João Pedrosa and Hugo Campos in the first semifinal of the men’s tournament, on Sunday, at 11:30 local time (17:30 UTC), while Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen and Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava meet in the second semifinal one hour later. The medal matches will be held later in the afternoon, with the final starting at 17:30 local time (23:30 UTC) and the bronze medal match beginning one hour earlier.

The 37-year-old Pedro, a Rio 2016 Olympian, and the 29-year-old Guto were the winners of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Major tournament held in Poreč, Croatia, in 2017. After six years with different partners and no other international victories, the Brazilians reunited in 2023 and have been gradually improving their results in Elite16 events, finishing 13^th in Uberlândia, ninth in Ostrava and fifth in Gstaad two weeks ago.

In the fourth tournament since their return, the two advanced to the semifinals with a two-set (21-18, 21-15) victory over Americans Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander in the Round of 16 and a come-from-behind, 2-1 (10-21, 21-17, 15-13) triumph against Austrians Martin Ermacora and Philipp Waller in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

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

Their next opponents will be the 23-year-old Pedrosa and the 22-year-old Campos, who started the tournament in the qualifier and are now in the semifinals. The young Portuguese played three elimination matches in a long Saturday, the first of which against the French brothers Calvin and Quincy Aye – they prevailed in straight sets (21-19, 21-16).

In the Round of 16, Pedrosa and Campos were strongly challenged by the Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt, but managed to walk away with a three-set (25-27, 22-20, 15-11) victory. In their third and final match in Edmonton on Saturday, the Portuguese topped the new Dutch team of Christiaan Varenhorst and Leon Luini with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) win. This will be their second semifinal appearance in a Challenge tournament after finishing fourth in Torquay, Australia, last season.

On the other side of the bracket, Nicolai and Cottafava continued their undefeated campaign in Edmonton with two more victories. The Italians started the second day of the main draw at the Fan Park with a two-set (21-13, 21-18) victory over Germans Sven Winter and Lukas Pfretzschner in the Round of 16 and ended with it with another sweep (25-23, 21-16), against Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik in the quarterfinals.

Mol and Berntsen, who had ended pool play on Friday with a defeat, rebounded in great style, advancing to the semifinals with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) triumph against Americans Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk in the Round of 16 and a two-set (21-14, 21-17) victory over French Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar in the quarterfinals.

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2023
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter