On Friday, Carol & Barbara will take on second-seeded Americans Kristen Nuss & Taryn Brasher for the first place in the pool and a direct ticket to the second elimination round. In their opening game, Nuss & Brasher mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) victory over Brazilian qualifiers Verena Figueira de Oliveira & Kyce Mikaele Martins Silva. Verena & Kyce will meet Svozilova & Stochlova in the match for survival in the competition.
In Pool C, 15th-seeded Victoria & Hegeile achieved the only upset in the first leg of women’s pool play. The home duo achieved a convincing 2-0 (21-18, 21-11) win over 10th-seeded Vieira & Chamereau of France, with a match-high 19 points from Hegeile, including six kill blocks and two aces. The Brazilian pair will challenge third-seeded Latvians Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova in the pool winners’ match. Tina & Anastasija were forced to a tie-breaker by another Brazilian team – qualifiers Carol Horta & Elize Maia – but won it by a landslide, 2-1 (21-18, 14-21, 15-4).
The only other match that required a tie-breaker resolution on Thursday, was the Pool A meeting between Spain’s Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno, seeded 12th, and USA’s Julia Donlin & Lexy Denaburg, seeded 13th. The Spanish Olympians came out victorious with a 2-1 (21-14, 17-21, 15-10) win. In the other Pool A fixture, the world’s number one team and top seeds in Joao Pessoa Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) shutout of compatriots Flavia Moura Santos Cezar & Barbara De Sousa Alves Ferreira.
Reigning Olympic champions Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda), seeded fourth, pleased the home fans with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) sweep of their opening game against American qualifiers Hailey Harward & Molly Phillips. Meanwhile, another US pairing, that of reigning world champion Kelly Cheng with Molly Shaw, won the other first-leg game in this pool - 2-0 (21-16, 23-21) over Paraguayan Olympians Giuliana Poletti Corrales & Michelle Valiente.
