The top seeds are through to the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympic men’s beach volleyball tournament, as Brazilian duo Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt won their Round of 16 match on Saturday. The Brazilians, who entered the Rio Games atop the FIVB beach volleyball rankings, defeated the Spanish pair of Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira in straight sets.
Olympic beach volleyball results 2016: Top-seeded Brazilian team punches ticket to men’s quarterfinals
In addition to the top world ranking they held at the Olympic cutoff in mid-June, Alison and Schmidt also won gold at the 2015 World Championships held in the Netherlands. Alison earned a silver medal in the London Olympics, though with a different partner, making him the closest thing to a defending Olympic men’s champion -- the gold-winning German team from 2012 isn’t competing this time around. On Saturday, the Spaniards put up a tough fight in a close first set, but the Brazilians cruised through a 21-13 second set for the victory. They will face the U.S. duo of Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena in the quarterfinals on Monday.
The American duo got to this point by taking down Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl of Austria in two sets in the final match of the evening. Dalhausser won gold in 2008 with a different partner, Todd Rogers.
There was nearly a second Brazilian team in the quarters. Evandro Oliveira and Pedro Solberg won their first set against the Russian duo of Dmitri Barsouk and Nikita Liamin, but the Russians came back and finished strong to take the victory. Meanwhile, the Dutch tandem of Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, who entered the tournament as the second seed, breezed through their match in straight sets against Canadians Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk.
On the women’s side, the highest seed in action was the No. 4 German team of Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst. They made short work of their competition, beating the Swiss duo of Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré in straight sets. The next-highest seed, Heather Bansley and Sarah Pavan of Canada, faced off against their countrywomen Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas and won in straight sets. However, it took No. 6 seed Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel of the Netherlands three sets to knock out Joana Heidrich and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland.
In the final match of the evening, Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy of Australia defeated Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska of Poland. The Aussie duo will face off against the superstar American team of Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
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