Reigning world champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are among the four women’s teams set to compete in the medal rounds of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 on Sunday, in Czechia.

The Americans will face Brazilians Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos in one of the semifinals, on Sunday, at 9:30 local time (7:00 GMT), with Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova and Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson meeting for the other spot in the gold medal match one hour earlier.

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

The men’s semifinals will follow, with USA’s Andy Benesh/Miles Partain and the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot dueling at 10:30 local time (8:30 GMT) and Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum and Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig clashing one hour later.

After starting their campaign with a setback in Ostrava on Thursday, Cheng and Hughes found their rhythm, having won their last four matches in the tournament, with just one set dropped along the way.

On Saturday, they survived a pair of elimination matches, knocking compatriots Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint in the Round of 12 with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) win and prevailing over Germans Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann 2-1 (8-21, 21-18, 17-15) in a dramatic quarterfinal battle.

In the semifinals, they will face Duda and Ana Patrícia in a rematch of last year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship final. The Brazilians also had to win two matches on Saturday at the Lower Vitkovice industrial heritage site – they beat the home team of Barbora Hermannová and Marie-Sára Štochlová 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) in the Round of 12 and mounted a 2-1 (15-21, 24-22, 15-10) comeback victory over Swiss Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner in the quarterfinals.

The second women’s semifinal in Ostrava will reunite the two teams that remain undefeated in the tournament, Graudina/Samoilova and Melissa/Brandie, which both got to their fourth victories on Czech sand on Saturday’s quarterfinals – the Latvians downed Brazilians Bárbara Seixas and Carol Salgado 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) while the Canadians dominated Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi to a 2-0 (22-20, 21-12) victory.

Norwegians and Swedish to meet in the semis

Attempting to secure their fourth gold (and third straight) in Ostrava, Norwegians Mol and Sørum will have a tough battle in the semifinals. The Olympic champions, who are back in action after a three-month absence due to an injury, will meet Åhman and Hellvig, who won four of the last five Beach Pro Tour events they played at.

On Saturday, while the Beach Volley Vikings secured a 2-0 (30-28, 21-17) win over Olympic-bound Dutch Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde in the quarterfinals, the two-time European champions were pushed harder, triumphing against Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 15-12).

On the other semifinal, Americans Benesh and Partain needed two three-set wins to advance on Saturday – they topped Qatari Olympic medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-8) in the Round of 12 and defeated Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava also 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-11) in the quarterfinals.

Their opponents Boermans and de Groot, who confirmed their presence at the Paris Olympics earlier this week, had a smoother day, handing Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler a 2-0 (21-14, 21-11) quarterfinal win to advance.

Ostrava Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

The women will play for bronze in Ostrava at 13:00 local time (11:0 GMT), with the gold medal match starting one hour later. The men’s final begins at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT), with the dispute for bronze taking place one hour earlier.

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