Rio de Janeiro, May 20, 2017 - It’s down to eight women’s and eight men’s teams vying for medals at the US$300,000 Rio Open where the schedule here Saturday at the tennis center located at the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca features 12 matches to set the field for Sunday’s podium placement meetings.
Led by host Brazil and the United States, eight countries are still in contention for medals entering Saturday’s schedule where quarter- and semi-final matches will be played. Rio Open concludes Sunday morning with podium placing matches as the winning teams in each gender will split the $20,000 first-place prizes.
Brazil still has five teams playing Saturday starting with the women’s pairs of top-seeded Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa and fifth-seeded Fernanda Alves/Barbara Seixas. Men’s tandems remaining for Brazil are top-seeded Alvaro Filho/Saymon Barbosa and second-seeded Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt.
Saymon Barbosa (No. 1) celebrates a point with Brazilian partner Alvaro Filho
Four American pairs are still competing, including 22nd-seeded Kelly Claes/Sarah Hughes in the women’s bracket, and 11th-seeded Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb, 13th-seeded Theo Brunner/Casey Patterson and 16th-seeded Ryan Doherty/John Hyden.
German pairs still in the women’s competition are second-seeded Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst and third-seeded Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude. Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, The Netherlands and Poland will each have one team playing in Saturday’s opening matches.
Other women’s pairs playing Saturday are seventh-seeded Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic and 11th-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan of Canada. Filling out the men’s quarter-final slate are fourth-seeded Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands, sixth-seeded Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland and ninth-seeded Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy.
Barbora Hermannova (white top) of Czech Republic hits the Mikasa past the block of Brazil's Josemari Alves
Here is Saturday’s quarter-finals matches:
Women
• Ludwig/Walkenhorst, Germany vs. Humana-Paredes/Pavan, Canada
• Laboureur/Sude, Germany vs. Hermannova/Slukova, Czech Republic
• Agatha/"Duda", Brazil vs. Claes/Hughes, United States
• Fernanda/Barbara, Brazil vs. Talita/Larissa, Brazil
Men
• Saymon/Alvaro, vs. Lupo/Nicolai, Italy
• Kantor/Losiak Poland vs. Doherty/Hyden, United States
• Brouwer/Meeuwsen, The Netherlands vs. Brunner/Patterson, United States
• Crabb/Gibb, United States vs. Alison/Bruno, Brazil
Following the Rio Open, the next stop on the FIVB World Tour will be May 31-June 4 in Moscow for a three-star event in the Russian capital. Highlighting the 2017 international calendar for men and women Beach Volleyball players will be the $1-million FIVB World Championships July 28 through August 6 in Austria and the $800,000 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals August 23-27 in Hamburg, Germany.