Brazilians Tainá Bigi and Victoria Lopes were one of four women’s teams to go undefeated on the opening day of the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Finals, in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday.

Entered in the tournament that reunites the top ten teams of the season in each gender thanks to a wildcard, the Brazilians had a promising start to their campaign and are one step closer to advancing to the next round.

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

Tainá, 28, and Victoria, 24, arrived in Doha straight from Nuvali, the Philippines, where they took bronze in a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event last Sunday. The Brazilians kept their good form on Wednesday and upset Americans Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, the bronze medalists of the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships, with a straight-set (21-16, 21-18) victory.

The Brazilians are guaranteed another win in Pool B since Swiss Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli were forced to forfeit their matches at the event because of a last-minute injury and will book their spots to the next round if they manage to overcome Dutch Olympians Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon on Thursday, at 14:00 local time (11:00 GMT).

Also undefeated in Pool B are Australian Olympic medalists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho, who topped Schoon and Stam in the tie-breaker (21-19, 16-21, 15-8) and got the forfeit win over Brunner and Hüberli.

VW Beach Pro Tour Doha Finals: full match schedule

World champions drop two matches

Pool A also had surprising results on Wednesday, with reigning world and Beach Pro Tour champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes of the United States dropping their first two matches in this year’s edition of the tournament.

The Americans, who returned to the sand for the first time since their World Championship victory in Mexico in October, fell in three sets (17-21, 22-20, 15-13) to Germans Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann in their first match and were swept (23-21, 21-16) by Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson a few hours later.

The pool is led by Brazilians Eduarda ‘Duda’ LIsboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos, who came from behind to beat Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova in the tie-breaker (21-13, 12-21, 15-9) and got a straight-set (21-16, 24-22) victory against Müller and Tillmann.

The ten participating duos are split into two pools and will each play four matches. The two pool winners will advance directly to the semifinals, while the second and third-best-placed tandems in each group will move forward to the quarterfinals.

Pool play continues for the women on Thursday, when eight more matches will be played in Doha. The opening stage of the tournament will be concluded on Friday, when the quarterfinal matches will also be played.

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