Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 13, 2016 – Nikita Liamin and Dmitri Barsuk pulled off the first major upset of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games beach volleyball tournament elimination rounds when they knocked out Brazil’s Pedro Salgado and Evandro Goncalves with a 2-1 (16-21, 21-14, 15-10) win at the Copacabana Beach Arena on Saturday.
The Russians now join their compatriots Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov in Monday’s quarterfinals, the first time any Russian team has reached so far in an Olympic Games.
For Rio-natives Pedro and Evandro the result completes an anti-climactic home Olympics. They lost their first two pool matches, but qualified for the round of 16 after they beat Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins in their final pool fixture.
However, they were unable to deal with Liamin’s presence at the net nor Barsuk’s movement behind him and so become the first Brazilian team to be eliminated.
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Their compatriots Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt did reach the quarterfinals. The number one seeds beat Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira 2-0 (24-22, 21-13).
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Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena will face the number one seeds after they beat Austria’s Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl.
The US duo wrapped up a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) win over the Austrian pair in 40 minutes.
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Dutch pride will be on the line when Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst meet Robert Meeuwsen and Alexander Brouwer.
Nummerdor and Varenhorst booked their place in the quarterfinals on Friday, before Meeuwsen and Brouwer set up a clash with their training partners by defeating Canada’s Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk, 2-0 (21-12, 21-15).
Both teams have won medals at the last two FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Brouwer and Meeuwsen won gold in 2013 and Nummerdor and Varenhorst won silver in 2015. It means that both teams will be confident of adding to their hauls should they progress.
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