Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann are one win away from heading to the Paris Olympics fresh from winning a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour medal as the Germans advanced to the semifinals of the Vienna Elite16, the last tournament before the Games, on Friday.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Vienna Elite16 matches live on VBTV

The only team that qualified for Paris 2024 still alive in the women’s tournament, the two will face Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti in the first semifinal, on Saturday, at 11:00 local time (9:00 GMT). One hour later, USA’s Terese Cannon/Megan Kraft and Switzerland’s Joana Mäder/Anouk Vergé-Dépré will battle for the second spot in the final. The bronze medal match is scheduled for 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT), with the gold medal match starting one hour later.

After ranking first in Pool C on Thursday, Müller and Tillmann started the day in the quarterfinals and had only one match to play on Friday. The bronze medalists of the 2022 FIVB World Championship showed nerves of steel to handle the pressure of the Austrians fans and topped the home team formed by the Klinger sisters Dorina and Ronja in straight sets (21-16, 21-19).

Their next opponents, Ágatha and Rebecca had a longer path to semifinals, winning a pair of matches on Friday – they defeated Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) in the Round of 12 and knocked Swiss Esmée Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré out in the quarterfinals, also in straight sets (21-17, 21-11).

Vienna Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Zoé’s older sister Anouk and partner Mäder will represent Switzerland in the semifinals after they eliminated Australian Olympic medalists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Aratcho with a three-set (23-21, 19-21, 15-9) victory in the quarterfinals.

Americans Cannon and Kraft, who took silver last week in Gstaad, are in the medal rounds again. The two got an automatic pass to the semifinals after compatriots Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint were forced to forfeit their quarterfinal match because of an injury.

Olympic teams in the men’s quarterfinals

In the men’s tournament, pool play was completed in Vienna on Friday and four teams qualified for the Paris 2024 Games secured the direct spots in the quarterfinals as the winners of their respective pools.

Reigning Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway claimed the top spot in Pool B with three wins thanks to a dramatic three-set (24-22, 18-21, 28-26) victory over the Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt in a preview of a duel that will take place in Paris in a few weeks. In the quarterfinals, the Beach Volley Vikings will meet either USA’s Andy Benesh/Miles Partain or Austria’s Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst, who will play in the Round of 12.

Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler had two wins and a loss, but still ranked first in Pool C – on Friday, they beat Benesh and Partain in staright sets (21-14, 21-19). Their opponents will come from the Round of 12 duel between Brazil’s Adrielson dos Santos/Arthur Mariano and Spain Pablo Herrera/Adrián Gavira.

Polish Michal Bryl and Bartosz Łosiak went undefeated in Pool A and confirmed their spot in the quarterfinals with a sweep (25-23, 21-18) of Adrielson and Arthur. Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot and Germans Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter will duel in the Round of 12 for the right of playing them.

The fourth and last team guaranteed in the quarterfinals is the one of Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde, who defeated compatriots Boermans and de Groot 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) to finish first in Pool D. They can now face either the Grimalts of Brazilians Andre Loyola and George Wanderley in the quarterfinals.

Saturday’s men’s schedule in Vienna will feature the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals. The semifinals and medal matches will be held on Sunday.

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