Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson entered this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Hamburg in the best moment of their young partnership, coming from a triumph in their home tournament in Montréal three weeks ago.

An upset in their opening match on Thursday jeopardized their momentum, but the Canadian Olympians reacted with back-to-back wins and finished pool play in first place in Pool B, advancing directly to the quarterfinals at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Part of a pool with three Olympic medalists in the German event, the Canadians dropped their opening match to Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti on Thursday, but displayed progress in their second match of the opening day, sweeping Chinese Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia.

On Friday, Melissa and Brandie had arguably their best performance in the tournament so far, taking down the home team of Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann, which had won four consecutive matches before their encounter, in straight sets (21-16, 21-18).

Con questo risultato, le canadesi hanno superato in classifica le tedesche, anch'esse con due vittorie in tre partite di pool play, e si sono classificate prime nella Pool B, avanzando direttamente ai quarti di finale. Xue e Xia, che venerdì hanno sconfitto Ágatha e Rebecca al tie-break (16-21, 21-17, 15-13), si sono classificate terze e parteciperanno agli ottavi di finale insieme a Ludwig e Lippmann.

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Pool A ended with Brazilians Ana Patrícia Ramos and Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa in first place. The reigning world champions overcame New Zealanders Alice Zeimann and Olivia MacDonald in straight sets (21-11, 21-18) to secure their third victory in Hamburg. Their compatriots Carol Salgado and Bárbara Seixas and Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, who met on Friday with the Brazilians triumphing in two sets (21-15, 21-16), advanced to the Round of 12.

“Playing New Zealand was a challenge because we didn’t know them very well,” Ana Patrícia explained. “But our game plan worked really well and we’re excited to get on the court again tomorrow.”

The remaining two pools had American duos at the top of the standings. Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss were the winners in Pool C after they swept (21-13, 21-18) French Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard. The Europeans ranked third and will play in the Round of 12, as well as Swiss Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli, who downed Germans Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger 2-1 (21-16, 18-21, 15-13) and finished second.

Nella Pool D, Kelly Cheng e Sara Hughes hanno confermato il primo posto con una vittoria per 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) sulle thailandesi Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee e Taravadee Naraphornrapat, che sono state eliminate. Nell'altro incontro della giornata, le tedesche Cinja Tillmann e Svenja Müller, seconde classificate, hanno superato le italiane Marta Menegatti e Valentina Gottardi, terze classificate, in set diretti (21-19, 21-19).

I turni eliminatori iniziano sabato, alle 10:30 ora locale (08:30 UTC), con i quattro incontri degli ottavi di finale: Menegatti/Gottardi contro Brunner/Hüberli, Xue/Xia contro Carol/Bárbara, Ludwig/Lippmann contro Tina/Anastasia e Tillmann/Müller contro Placette/Richard.

Melissa/Brandie, Duda/Ana Patrícia, Kloth/Nuss e Cheng/Hughes attendono i loro prossimi avversari nei quarti di finale, che inizieranno alle 16:00 ora locale (14:00 UTC). Le semifinali e le partite per le medaglie si terranno domenica ad Amburgo.

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