Santa Rosa, Philippines, November 8, 2024 – On a day when all Thai players sadly crashed out of the 2024 Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships at Nuvali Sand Courts, seven Australian teams including four men’s pairs advanced to the highly-anticipated quarterfinals, with top seeds Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher and Joshua Howat/Luke Ryan fighting it out in an all-Australian affair and second seeds Thomas Hodges/Zachery Schubert challenging Chinese veterans Wu Jiaxin/Ha Likejiang on Saturday.
Nicolaidis/Carracher, who claimed the 2024 Mollymook Futures title and 2023 AVC Beach Tour Penghu Open in Chinese Taipei to their name, eliminated Thailand’s Netitorn Muneekul/Wachirawit Muadpha 21-9, 21-19 in Round of 16 on Friday to next take on compatriots Howat/Ryan, who toppled Japan’s Kai Kurokawa/Ryuichi Adachi 21-12, 21-11, in the Saturday morning’s quarterfinals.
Second seeds Thomas Hodges/Zachery Schubert, reigning champions who captured their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in the 2023 Jurmala Challenge, also secured their quarterfinal berth following their 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) demolition of Japan’s Yoshiumi Hasegawa/Dylan Hiroki Kurokawa in Round of 16. The Aussies will next go up against fifth seeds Wu Jiaxin/Ha Likejiang.
The highly-experienced Wu/Ha could prove one of the strongest pairs to be reckoned with in this double-gender championships, seeing off Thailand’s Dunwinit Kaewsai/Banlue Nakprakhong 21-12, 21-14 in Round of 16 on Friday.
The Chinese duo took silver medal in the 2020 Asian Championships in Udon Thani, Thailand. They also captured the 2023 Wenzhou Cangnan Futures on home soil and three consecutive titles on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures on the same year comprising Sohar in Oman, Mount Maunganui in New Zealand and Coolangatta Futures in Australia.
After shutting out Japan’s Takahashi Takumi/Ikeda Jumpei 21-17, 21-17 in Round of 16, Australia’s third seeds D’Artagnan Potts/Jack Pearse, silver medallists at the AVC Beach Tour Taoyuan Open in Chinese Taipei early this year, will next face off against Kazakhstan’s qualifiers Dmitriy Yakovlev/Sergey Bogatu in the Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The remaining quarterfinal encounter will see qualifiers Bahman Salemiinjehboroun/Abolhassan Khakizadeh fight it out with Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajanighasab in an all-Iranian battle.
Salemi/Abolhassan advanced when their opponents Kiwis Alani Nicklin/Thomas Hartles were forced to forfeit their match in…
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