Men’s main draw underway at Espinho

Espinho, Portugal, July 6, 2018 – The men’s main draw at the Espinho four-star stop on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour starts on Friday. On the women’s side, all quarterfinalists will emerge after the first two elimination rounds are played.

For the pool stage of the main draw, the 32 men’s teams are divided into eight pools of four pairs each. Within each pool two matches will be played first, with the two winners securing their spots in the single elimination phase and playing each other for a direct ticket to the second elimination round. The two losers will also face each other in the survival battles later on Friday to stay in contention.

The competition day starts at 09:00 local time with the first batch of men’s matches. The first ones to take on the centre court are top-seeded Americans Philip Dalhausser and Nicholas Lucena and Spanish wild cards Raul Mesa and Christian Garcia for their first Pool A match.

Third-seeded Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Andre Loyola Stein will follow with their Pool C game against Austrian qualifiers Robin Seidl and Christoph Dressler, before another Austrian team, fifth-seeded Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst, entertain the centre court crowd with a clash against Turkey’s Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gogtepe.

In the last batch of first-leg pool matches, at 11:30, local favourites, eighth-seeded Roberto Mauro Silva Reis and Fabricio Silva will spark some extra excitement for the Portuguese fans with their Pool H opener against Serbia’s Lazar Kolaric and Stefan Basta.

Women’s action will take over the four competition courts from 12:20 with the first elimination round matches. Japan’s Megumi Murakami and Miki Ishii and USA’s Brittany Hochevar and Kelly Claes will be the first to play on the centre court. 

After that, at 13:10, Portugal’s Gabriela Coelho and Anessa Paquete will be cheered on by the home crowd in their encounter with Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Rebecca Cavalcanti Barbosa Silva.

Later on Friday, sand action will heat up with the men’s pool placement matches and the second round of women’s eliminations.

Live streaming of centre court matches at Espinho is available on Portuguese Volleyball Federation’s online TV channel.