Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 20, 2017 - The rain cleared on Saturday in Olympic Park for a big day of play at the Rio Open, as by the end of the day Sunday's finals would be set.
The 4-Star tournament is the latest stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, and while the clouds were still around, the rain wasn't.
Up first were the quarterfinals, and the brackets were set.
The Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannová and Marketa Slukova were looking ahead to their quarterfinal.
Larissa and Talita were looking forward their all-Brazil quarterfinal against Barbara & Fernanda.
The women’s quarterfinals began, and Hermannová and Slukova defeat Germany’s Julia Sude and Chantal Laboureur to advance to the semifinals.
Then came a huge win for Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, as they knocked out the Olympic champs, Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst.
On the other side, an all-Brazil women’s semi was set as Agatha & Duda would play Barbara and Fernanda. That meant the Rio Olympic silver medalists, Agatha and Barbara, would be on opposite sides of the net playing for a chance at the final.
After a tough loss, Larissa & Talita start to look ahead to Moscow.
And the quarterfinals were not good for Germany’s women, either.
The action wasn’t just on the tourney courts, as kids got a chance to hit around!
On to the men’s quarterfinals, and Olympic gold medalists Alison & Bruno won their quarterfinal to get into Saturday night’s semis.
The Rio 2016 silver medalists, Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo of Italy, moved on to the semis, as well.
But the Olympic bronze medalists, Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands, were not advancing, losing to the USA’s Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner.
Up next, the women’s semifinals, as Canada was playing the Czech Republic first.
All of Saturday night’s semifinals were streaming live on FIVB YouTube!
Pavan and Humana-Paredes won 2-0, and will be playing for gold on Sunday!
The big all-Brazil women’s semi between Agatha/Duda and Barbara/Fernanda was next.
After losing the first set, Agatha and Duda won the final two to take the match and get to the final!
That meant Barbara & Fernanda are playing for bronze on Sunday.
One final set, the other final to be determined as the men’s semifinals were next.
Alison & Bruno got past Patterson & Brunner to get back in a Rio final!
The winners of the 2016 Rio Grand Slam, Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak, will be again in a Rio final after defeating Italy!
That meant there would be no Olympic final rematch for Paolo Nicolai & Daniele Lupo.
With that, the night ended in Olympic Park. On Sunday, we have medals on the line, as both bronze and gold medal matches will be played. See you then!
