Among the Brazilians to progress was 55-time FIVB World Tour gold medal winner Ricardo Santos, who was playing with Andre Loyola after the retirement of Emanuel Rego in March.

They won 21-16, 23-21 in 35 minutes over 18th-seeded Felix Koraimann and Daniel Mullner of Austria.

Top seeded Saymon Barbosa and Gustavo “Guto” Carvalhaes, who topped the podium at May’s Cincinnati Open, outlasted 16th-seeded Toms Smedins and Aleksandrs Solovejs of Latvia 26-28, 21-15, 17-15 in 50 minutes.

Seventh-seeded Christian Garcia and Francisco Alfredo Marco led the Spanish charge by beating 10th-seeded Daniel Bergerud and Lars Retterholt of Norway, 21-19, 21-13.

Twelfth-seeded Cesar Menendez and Francisco Tomas joined them after overcoming the fifth-seeded Poniewaz brothers, Bennet and David, of Germany, 21-13, 21-13.

Other men’s qualifiers included third-seeded Ruslan Bykanov and Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia and fourth-seeded Sean Faiga and Ariel Hilman of Israel.

Joining them was sixth-seeded Rihards Finsters and Edgars Tocs of Latvia and ninth-seeded Lorenz Petutschnig/Tobias Winter of Austria.

A total of 58 men’s teams from 25 countries and 46 women’s teams from 20 countries are competing in Poland.

Women's pool action is due to begin tomorrow.