Both teams who lost their men’s round-of-12 matches, but still made it among the quarterfinalists of the Rio de Janeiro Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, bounced back with victories and advanced further on to Sunday’s semifinals. They will feature Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots against Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan, and Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo against Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot.

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Second-seeded Boermans & De Groot started their Saturday with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) defeat at the hands of top-seeded Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway, but emerged as one of the two round-of-12 losers that still got to compete in the quarterfinals. The Dutch took full advantage of this opportunity and put together a 2-1 (19-21, 21-10, 15-9) comeback victory over sixth-seeded home favorites Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano Lanci, who topped the home podium at the Joao Pessoa Elite last week. During the match, Boermans walled off the Brazilians with a remarkable 13 kill blocks towards a match-high 26 points. De Groot chipped in with four aces to finish with 18 points.

In another round-of-12 game, third-seeded Cherif & Ahmed also managed to come back from a set down against fourth-seeded Plavins & Fokerots to take a 2-1 (15-21, 21-17, 15-12) win. Staying in contention despite the loss, the Latvians capitalized on the opportunity with a 2-0 (21-14, 25-23) sweep of their quarterfinal against 13^th-seeded American Olympians Miles Evans & Chase Budinger, with a match-high 21 points from 40-year-old Plavins and another 17 from 20-year-old Fokerots.

Tokyo 20202 Olympic bronze medalists Cherif & Ahmed went on to win their quarterfinal match as well. The Qataris produced a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) shutout of fifth-seeded Dutchmen Steven van de Velde & Alexander Brouwer. Cherif led the way with an impressive 10 kill blocks towards a 20-point match high. Ahmed contributed another 14 points.

Seventh-seeded Cuban Olympians Diaz & Alayo also advanced to the semifinals after delivering the biggest surprise of the day – a 2-1 (21-23, 21-19, 15-5) quarterfinal upset of the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking Mol & Sorum. Alayo was the best scorer of the match with 27 points, including eight stuffs, while Diaz added another 15. Before that, in the round of 12, the Cubans eliminated Austrian qualifiers Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) shutout.

Plavins & Fokerots and Cherif & Ahmed will meet in the first semifinal on Sunday at 09:00 local time (12:00 UTC). The second between Alayo & Diaz and Boermans & De Groot will serve off at 10:00 (13:00). The third place match is at 15:00 (18:00) and the final will follow at 17:00 (20:00).

VW Beach Pro Tour Rio de Janeiro Elite: match schedule and results

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