Alayo-Díaz, Out to Regain Ground

The debut of the Cuban duo of Jorge Luis Alayo and Noslén Díaz in the first phase of 2025 Beach Volleyball World Pro Tour, the Challenger in Yucatán, Mexico, cannot be described as good.

The Cubans, who were the favorites to win the title in that event, finished fifth after a surprising loss in just two sets to Portuguese Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos, ranked 25th in the world, after successfully advancing through the first rounds.

The venue reported discomfort in Alayo's left knee, and if this is true, it will be much more difficult to achieve anything positive in the competition they will face this week: the Elite 16 tournament in Quintana Roo, also on Mexican soil.

Despite earning 600 world ranking points, the Cuban duo dropped one spot in the world rankings and now sits at 12th, as they were expected to add more points.

In Quintana Roo, our team's debut will be this Thursday against a pair from the qualifying round. In addition to another pair of similar standings, they share Group E with two old acquaintances: Chilean cousins Marcos and Esteban Grimalt, who remain among the best in the world, although they currently rank below us, at 26th in the world.

The winners over the Caribbean team at the last Pan American Games of Santiago de Chile 2023 have already been surpassed by our team in other competitions, but they are veterans who know their game on the sand and remain highly competitive at 35 and 33 years old, respectively.

Two teams advance to the next round, but finishing first gives them a direct pass, while finishing second would send them into a playoff against the third-place finishers in other categories to reach the round of 16, so it's important to avoid this extra match.

The tournament features high-profile opponents such as Sweden's Åhman-Hellvig, Latvia's Plavins-Fokerots, Denmark's Mol, H.-Berntsen, and Brazil's Evandro-Arthur, to name a few, so the level has risen significantly compared to the previous tournament.

Throughout their careers, Alayo-Díaz have shown that the higher the standards, the more they grow, and that’s the hope for this new competition, which grants a large number of points to the world ranking, the main method for winning a pass to the major multi-sport competitions.

Let's remember that in the last cycle, our team had to rush their chances to reach Paris 2024, practically forced to score points in each event, but this time, they are expected to have far fewer setbacks with stable participations into the world circuit.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff