All seven Brazilian teams competing in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 main draw in Rio de Janeiro advanced to the knockout stages of the tournament. Two of them – Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes and Vitoria Rodrigues & Hegeile Almeida – won their pools and jumped straight to Saturday’s quarterfinals, along with USA’s Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft and Italy’s Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth. Another five lined up among the second and third-placed teams in the pools to start the direct eliminations from the eighthfinal round, which will feature a stellar clash between experienced Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas and Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca Cavalcanti.

• Watch the Rio de Janeiro Elite16 on VBTV.

Having already qualified for the knockout stage on Thursday, second-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca Cavalcanti had another face-to-face encounter with fellow Brazilians on Friday. In a direct duel for the first place in Pool B, seventh-seeded Vitoria Rodrigues & Hegeile Almeida produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) upset of Agatha & Rebecca, with the help of five aces from Vitoria, and secured a spot in the quarterfinals.

Agatha & Rebecca finished pool runners-up and progressed to the eighthfinals, in which they will lock horns with Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas. So, early into the tournament, the Rio Elite16 offers a huge duel between the number five and the number three teams in the FIVB World Ranking. Also in Rio, some eight years ago, Agatha & Barbara earned Olympic silver together, but now they will have to face each other across the net in a battle for survival in the competition.

To add to the excitement, if Carol & Barbara win, they will secure a return to the top of the ranking as the world’s number one team again, but if Agatha & Rebecca move on and reach the Rio podium, they will surpass their opponents into the world’s top three. The match will open Saturday’s women’s action on centre court at 11:00 local time (14:00 UTC).

Carol & Barbara, seeded 11^th in the main draw, finished third in their Pool C. On Friday, they conceded their second loss in the pool, suffering a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) shutout at the hands of third-seeded Americans Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft, but then they bounced back to master a 2-0 (21-13, 21-10) sweep of the direct duel for the third place in the pool with Italian qualifiers Claudia Scampoli & Giada Bianchi.

Meanwhile, the direct duel for the third place in Pool B ended with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win for Giuliana Poletti & Michelle Valiente over Polish qualifiers Aleksandra Wachowicz & Julia Radelczuk, with each of the Paraguayan Olympians firing five aces. And in the direct duel for the first place in Pool C, Cannon & Kraft hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) shutout of Austria’s Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger.

Three Brazilian teams advanced from Pool A. In Friday’s decider for the first place and a remake of the Joao Pessoa Elite16 final from some three weeks ago, top-seeded Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes celebrated a 2-1 (21-17, 20-22, 15-11) victory over eighth-seeded Talita Antunes & Taiana Lima. 16^th-seeded qualifiers Thainara Feitosa & Elize Maia, on the other hand, took the third place in the pool after shutting out Argentina’s Brenda Churin & Ana Gallay for it in a 2-0 (21-10, 21-17) decider.

Fifth-seeded Italians Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth survived two tie-breakers on Friday to finish on top of Pool D undefeated. First, they managed a 2-1 (16-21, 21-11, 15-5) comeback against German qualifiers Sandra Ittlinger & Kim Van de Velde, with a 26-point match high from Gottardi. Then, they claimed a 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-11) victory over fourth-seeded Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte, despite Paulikiene’s six aces in the match, to which Gottardi answered with five. It was the third tie-breaker loss for the Lithuanians in the pool, which left them out of contention. In what proved to be a direct clash for the second place in the pool, Ittlinger & Van de Velde achieved a 2-0 (24-22, 21-10) win over Andressa Cavalcanti & Taina Bigi, leaving the Brazilians in third place, but into the eighthfinals.

The women’s eighthfinals are scheduled at 11:00 (14:00) and 12:00 (15:00). Saturday’s programme will be completed with the women’s quarterfinals, starting at 17:00 (20:00) and 18:00 (21:00).

VW Beach Pro Tour Rio de Janeiro Elite16: results and schedule

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