Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 20 2017 - Saturday’s action at the US$300,000 Rio Open started with a “bang” as Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan posted a two-set morning quarter-final win over Rio 2016 Olympic champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany at the tennis center located at the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca.
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Seeded 11th in the “four-star” FIVB World Tour event and playing in only their second international Beach Volleyball tournament together, Humana -Paredes and Pavan scored a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) win in 33 minutes over the second-seeded Germans to advance to the Rio Open semi-finals where they will play seventh-seeded Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic Saturday afternoon.
Hermannova and Slukova, who placed 17th at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, advanced to their second FIVB World Tour semi-final in 18 international starts together by out-lasting third-seeded Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15) in 48 minutes. It was the Czech’s second FIVB win over Laboureur and Sude in as many meetings.
Marketa Slukova (left) and Barbora Hermannova of the Czech Republic
While Humana-Paredes was almost “speechless” after the win as she advanced to her first-ever FIVB World Tour semi-final in 31 international starts, Pavan credited her partner’s “serving as a big different in the match. We played very consistently and made very few mistakes. Again, Melissa’s play was a big reason for our success against the Germans.”
In seeing their personal 10-match winning streak snapped in Rio, Ludwig and Walkenhorst were playing in their first international Beach Volleyball event together since last September when the Germans secured their seventh gold medal of the 2016 season by winning the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals in Toronto. In mid-December, Ludwig had right shoulder surgery and the Rio Open was her first international event this season.
The win for Pavan also avenged a setback to Ludwig and Walkenhorst at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Pavan and Heather Bansley won their first four matches in the Summer Games before losing 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) to the Germans in a 35-minute quarter-final match.
The Olympic setback ended the Pavan/Bansley partnership with the two forming new partnerships last September for the Brandie Wilkerson as the pair has posted three-straight ninths on the international tour. In their first FIVB event together, Pavan and Humana -Paredes were ousted from the Toronto event by Bansley and Wilkerson in a country quota match.
With three host country pairs competing in the lower half of the Rio Open elimination bracket, the Brazilian teams of fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa and fifth-seeded Fernanda Alves/Barbara Seixas also advanced to the semi-finals.
With a fifth and first in their first two FIVB World Tour starts together, Fernanda and Barbara posted a 2-1 (21-19, 13-21 and 15-12) quarter-final win in 48 minutes over top-seeded Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca, who placed fourth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after losing in the medal rounds to Ludwig/Walkenhorst and April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States.
Barbara (right) celebrates a win with Fernanda Saturday morning
Agatha, who claimed the Rio 2016 Olympic silver medal with Barbara, and Duda gained a spot in the “final four” with a 2-0 (21-19 21-17) win over 22nd-seeded Kelly Claes/Sara Hughes of the United States. In the first FIVB event this season in the United States, Talita and Larissa defeated Agatha and Duda for the title at the Fort Lauderdale Major in Florida.
Agatha Bednarczuk (right) of Brazil blocks against Kelly Claes of the United States
With the men’s quarter-final and semi-finals also being played Saturday, the Rio Open concludes Sunday morning with podium placing matches as the winning teams in each gender will split the $20,000 first-place prizes.
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.
