Itapema, Brazil, May 18, 2018 – The $300,000 Itapema Open enters the second day of the main draw this Friday with the elimination rounds bringing excitement to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event on the Brazilian coast.
All 64 teams (32 men’s and 32 women’s) which started the tournament remain in contention after the first 48 main draw matches were played on Thursday. However, starting this Friday, any setbacks will result in elimination.
The day’s schedule will start with the conclusion of pool play with eight matches happening in each gender. The eight teams that advance from these games will meet the tandems that finished second in their pools.
The eight pool winners in each gender are already lined up in the Round of 16, which will also be played on Friday. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled to happen on Saturday, while the gold and bronze medal matches will take place on Sunday morning.
Some of the teams which were expected to win their first matches had surprising setbacks in the Itapema Open and they will need to play for their survival in the tournament early on Friday.
That’s the case for Spanish Olympians Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira. The Europeans, who won the bronze medal at the Huntington Beach Open two weeks ago, lost to German qualifiers Phillipp Bergmann and Yannick Harms and will have to overcome Norway’s Mathias Bernstein and Hendrik Mol to remain alive in the tournament.
Brazil’s Alvaro Filho and Saymon Barbosa also had early struggles in Itapema as they were caught by surprise by Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Lorenz Schumann. The eighth-seeded Brazilians will matchup with Poland’s Kacper Kujawiak and Maceij Rudol.
In the women’s tournament, the Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova, who dropped a result to Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova and Andrea Strbova, will try to rebound against Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen/Riikka Lehtonen.
Karla Borger and Margareta Kozuch will also have to get their first win in Itapema to remain in contention. The German duo lost to Russia’s Svetlana Kholomina and Nadezda Makroguzova on their debut and will now face Switzerland’s Nicole Eiholzer and Elena Steinemann.