Volleyball Beach Pro Tour: Copacabana Line-Up & Rio Return
Beach Pro Tour Rio Elite16: Top Teams Prepare for Brazilian Showdown
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – September 23, 2025 – The Beach Pro Tour returns to Rio de Janeiro this week, promising intense competition as the world’s top beach volleyball teams battle for glory. The event, featuring both established stars and rising challengers, begins with qualifiers on Wednesday and culminates in medal matches on Sunday.
Brazilian Powerhouses Lead the Charge
The Brazilian tandem of Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Mariano Lanci, currently ranked sixth in the world, are aiming to continue their dominant run on home sand. The 2017 world champions have secured all four of their Beach pro Tour gold medals in Brazil and lead Pool E as the sixth seed. Thay will face competition from Cuban Olympians Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo in their pool.
Pool D will be headlined by Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots of Latvia, the bronze medalists from the 2024 Rio Elite16 and currently ranked 10th in the world. They will be challenged by Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & izac carracher, and the Brazilian pairing of 2017 world champion Andre Stein and 2022 World Championship silver medalist renato Lima.
Qualifiers Feature Elite Competition
The men’s qualification tournament, starting at 08:00 local time (11:00 UTC) on Wednesday, will be a battle in itself. Last week’s Joao Pessoa silver medalists, remi Bassereau & Calvin Aye of France (jointly ranked 11th), and Norway’s Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol (also ranked 11th) are among the high-caliber teams vying for a main draw spot.
Austria’s Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger (ranked 20th) and portugal’s Joao Pedrosa & Hugo Campos (ranked 22nd) will also be looking to replicate their impressive qualifying runs from Joao Pessoa, where they reached the quarterfinals.
Returning Champions and Underdogs
Last year’s Rio de Janeiro Elite16 winners, Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello of England, are back but will need to navigate the qualification tournament. In 2024, they entered as the 14th-seeded team in qualifications and ultimately claimed their first and only Beach Pro Tour gold.
pool E is awaiting two teams emerging from the qualification rounds to complete the lineup, alongside the Dutch pairing of 2013 world champion Alexander Brouwer and Steven van de Velde, who finished fourth in Joao Pessoa last week. Americans Chaim schalk & James Shaw also feature in this pool.
Tournament Format
The main draw will employ a modified pool play format. The top three teams from each pool will advance to the elimination rounds,culminating in the medal matches on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.