Italy’s Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava delivered the big upset of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa Elite16 quarterfinals on Saturday, knocking out recently crowned world champions Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner and advancing to Sunday’s semifinals, where they will face Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands. In the other men’s semifinal, home favourites Andre Stein & George Wanderley will take on Swedish jump-setters David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig.

In the duels for the spots in the women’s final on Sunday, Brazilians Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos and Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg will take on China’s Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi and USA’s Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss, respectively.

· Watch the Joao Pessoa Elite16 main draw live on VBTV.

Fifth-seeded Nicolai & Cottafava, who had finished Pool D runners-up on a 1-2 win-loss record, started Saturday’s competition day in Joao Pessoa with a convincing 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) eighthfinal victory over Austria’s Julian Horl & Alexander Horst to face Czechia’s Perusic & Schweiner in the quarterfinals. The top-seeded world champions recovered from losing a tight first set by narrowly winning the second and pushing the match to a tie-breaker. However, the Italians dominated the third set to prevail for a 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-8) win and advance to the semis. Cottafava led the team with 23 points, including three aces and a kill block. Nicolai contributed another 21, including two aces and three blocks, while Schweiner raised five kill blocks to finish on a match-high 25 points for the Czechs.

The Italians’ opponents in one of Sunday’s semifinals, starting at 10:00 local time (13:00 UTC), also went through two playoff matches on Saturday. Eighth-seeded Dutchmen Boermans & De Groot, who had finished pool runners-up to Perusic & Schweiner, hammered out a 2-0 (21-18, 21-11) eighthfinal upset of third-seeded Poles Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak. In the quarterfinals, they came back from a set down against former world’s number one team, Qatari qualifiers Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan, to celebrate a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-13) victory.

Second-seeded Ahman & Hellvig continued their winning streak from Pool B into the quarterfinals, but it was the third match in a row they had to win in a tie-breaker third set. Against the fourth-seeded home pairing of Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano, the Swedes came back from a set down to celebrate a 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 15-10) win. At 11:00 (14:00) on Sunday, they will take on another Brazilian duo, 11^th-seeded George & Andre, who extended their victory streak from pool play to the quarterfinals with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) sweep of their game against 16^th-seeded qualifiers, fellow Brazilians Adrielson Dos Santos & Arthur Da Silva, with six kill blocks from Andre.

Among the teams that reached the women’s semifinals, only Carol & Barbara had to go through two playoff games on Saturday. The fifth-seeded Brazilians, who had narrowly made the eighthfinals by finishing third in Pool D on a 1-2 win-loss record, mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-8) shutout of compatriots Taina Bigi & Victoria Lopes, and then backed it up with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-12) victory over sixth-seeded Germans Cinja Tillmann & Svenja Muller. Carol chipped in five aces and three kill blocks towards that win, while Barbara came up with a match-high 19 points.

On Sunday at 08:00 (11:00), Carol & Barbara will lock horns with mighty Nuss & Kloth. The second-seeded Americans continued their march through the Joao Pessoa main draw without dropping a set. In the quarterfinals, they produced their fourth consecutive straight-set victory, 2-0 (21-12, 21-15) over French qualifiers Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard.

Meanwhile, top-seeded Duda & Ana Patricia engaged in a hard-fought duel with third-seeded Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands and managed their third three-set victory in Joao Pessoa, pleasing the home crowd with a 2-1 (21-18, 13-21, 15-13) success. Their opponents in Sunday’s semifinal at 09:00 (12:00), fourth-seeded Xue & Xia, also battled through three sets in their quarterfinal against Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina to progress undefeated in the tournament. The Chinese duo celebrated a hard-fought 2-1 (22-20, 14-21, 15-12) win with the help of five kill blocks from Xue and four aces from Xia.

The afternoon programme in Joao Pessoa will offer the four medal matches. The women’s third-place game will start at 14:00 local time (17:00 UTC), followed by the men’s bronze medal match at 15:00 (18:00). The battle for the women’s gold is set to begin at 16:00 (19:00) and the men’s showdown at 17:00 (20:00) will close the event.

VW Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa Elite16: schedule and results

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