Sydney, Australia, March 17, 2017 - Canada’s Julie Gordon and Camille Saxton will get a solid early test on Saturday of how good their win was at the FIVB World Tour event in Shepparton earlier this month.
Pavlik and Dowdy, playing in their third competition together, had no problems disposing of Japan’s Takemi Nishibori and Marie Wada in straight sets on Friday.
Top seeds Louise Bawden and Nicole Laird played together at the Fort Lauderdale Major in February.
Tournament top seeds, Australia’s Louise Bawden and Nicole Laird, will take on German young guns Leonie Kortzinger and Sandra Seyfferth, who finished fourth in Shepparton and had a straight-sets win over Japan’s Suzuki and Ishii on Friday.
Other mouth-watering match-ups on Sunday morning include Australian 2016 Olympian, Mariafe Artacho del Solar, and Jessyka Ngauamo taking on the exciting Vanuatu combination of Linline Matauatu and Loti Joe.
Matauatu and her long-term partner, Miller Pata, went within one win of qualifying for the Rio Olympics, while Joe was also part of Vanuatu’s Olympic qualification squad.
Scotland’s Lynne Beattie and Melissa Coutts, who made history by notching up their country’s first ever World Tour win on Friday, will face off against the Australian form team of Becchara Palmer and Phoebe Bell.
Round of 24 and Round of 16 matches on Saturday:
Turkey’s young team of Merve Nezir (19) and Esra Betul Cetin (20) had a bye on Friday, and will take on not just their opponents, but also the vocal home crowd, when they step out against Manly’s Rohkamper sisters, Alice and Johannah.
USA’s Kimberly Dicello and Emily Stockman are playing in just their second tournament together, and will need to find their feet quickly against the experienced Australian duo of Christie Jenkins and Katie Bartoli.
New Zealand’s Julia Tilley and Alice Bain spent a lot of time working on their mental strength after bowing out in the opening round at Shepparton, and will get the chance to test their progress against that event’s silver medallists, Kim Behrens and Anni Schumacher of Germany.
The opening game of the day will pit the last remaining Japanese team of Sayaka Mizoe and Suzuka Hashimoto against Austrian twin sisters, Nadine and Teresa Strauss.
Matches on Saturday begin at 8am, local time.