Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos, the world’s number one women’s team, were the first to advance straight to the semifinals of the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha. The Brazilian standouts finished their Pool A campaign on Thursday undefeated in four matches played and with a secure spot on top of the final pool standings.

· Watch the Beach Pro Tour Doha Finals live on VBTV.

Ana Patricia & Duda started their second competition day at the Finals with a straight-set win over reigning world champions Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng. Ana Patricia produced a match-high 22 points, including two aces and two kill blocks, towards a victory over the Americans, who are still winless after three games played and already out of contention for the quarterfinal spots.

The Brazilians’ next win was not quite as straightforward. On Thursday evening, in their last pool match, they celebrated a narrow success over Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson, with Ana Patricia once again the best scorer of the game, this time raising five kill blocks towards a 25-point tally.

Despite the loss, Melissa & Brandie advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals, along with Germany’s Cinja Tillmann & Svenja Muller, currently on a 2-1 win-loss record each. When the two teams face each other in their last pool match on Friday, they will only determine who takes the pool runner-up position and who finishes third. On Thursday, both pairs claimed three-set victories over Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina, who are also still winless and out of contention. Melissa & Brandie achieved a win, while Muller & Tillmann managed a comeback victory over the Latvians.

Pool B, on the other hand, is still wide open, with all four teams (except for Switzerland’s Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli, who forfeited all their matches) still in contention for the playoffs before Friday’s last match between Australia’s Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Brazil’s Taina Bigi & Victoria Lopes.

After a victory over USA’s Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss on Thursday, the Aussies are still undefeated on top the Pool B standings on a 3-0 win-loss record. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists are sure to progress in the tournament, but are not sure whether it will be straight to the semifinals as pool winners, or to the quarterfinals as pool runners-up.

Kloth & Nuss bounced back with a shutout of Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands, who had mastered a shutout of Taina & Victoria earlier in the day.  The Americans and the Dutch finished their pool campaigns on 2-2 each and if the Brazilians lose to the Australians on Friday, there will be a three-way tie for the places from second to fourth, which will be decided on point ratios. Should Taina & Victoria beat Clancy & Mariafe, then Stam & Schoon will have to start packing.

VW Beach Pro Tour Doha Finals: schedule and results

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