In the other three pools, the highest seeded teams lived up to their ranking and topped the standings to jump straight into the second playoff round. Second-seeded Dutchmen Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) sweep of the Pool B final against Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger & Leo Dillier, while American Olympians Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh survived a dramatic two-setter against Chilean qualifiers Vicente Droguett & Fernando Quintero to squeeze out a 2-0 (33-31, 26-24) victory and advance as third in the pool.
Fourth-seeded Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots of Latvia topped Pool D after two straight-set wins. In the final, they delivered a 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) victory over Australian Olympians Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher. The third place in the pool was for Brazil’s Andre Stein & Renato Lima, who beat Germany’s Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter by 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-12) in the survival match.
Last week’s Joao Pessoa Elite winners and home favorites Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci, seeded sixth in the main draw, had to come back from a set down in the Pool F winners’ game against Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo on the way to a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 15-8) victory and a ticket to the round of 12. Norwegian qualifiers Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol will join the Cubans into the round of 18 after a 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) win over Israeli qualifiers Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov for the third place in the pool.