Japan’s Akiko Hasegawa & Miki Ishii and Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson won the women’s sixteenthfinal matches of the so-called “lucky-loser” round on Saturday evening and qualified for the eighthfinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament. Chile’s Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt and USA’s Miles Evans & Chase Budinger were the two men’s pairs that survived the first knockout round of the tournament and moved into the last 16.

Despite the incessant support for their opponents from the home crowd on the stands and the rainy conditions in Paris, 20^th-seeded Akiko & Ishii mastered a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) shutout of sixth-seeded Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard, the last French team in either gender still standing. Akiko contributed 17 points to the victory to top the scorers’ chart of the match.

“We are best friends with the French team, sometimes we go out for lunch or dinner, sometimes we go shopping, but today we had to play against each other in such an important match and it was difficult,” said Akiko. “We played a good game.”

In the second women’s sixteenthfinal, fourth-seeded Melissa & Brandie overcame the resistance of 22^nd-seeded Barbora Hermannova & Marie-Sara Stochlova of Czechia and defeated them in a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) straight-setter to snatch the last vacancy in the women’s eighthfinals. Melissa led the way with 20 points, including four aces.

The sixteenthfinal round started earlier with one of the men’s matches, but unfortunately it lasted only three rallies before Canada’s Samuel Schachter & Daniel Dearing withdrew because of Dearing’s injury. 23^rd-seeded Grimalt & Grimalt won by forfeit and became the first “lucky-loser” team to advance to the eighthfinals.

“Obviously, we are frustrated. We want to be able to compete,” Sam Schachter commented. “It’s super disappointing that we weren’t able to get Dan’s back to a place where he can compete, but we really tried our hardest, including Dan and our entire team; we are grateful for their help; but that’s part of sport. Sometimes injuries happen… Obviously, horrific timing! It’s a nightmare for Dan and me. You know we wanted to be able to share that moment with our families and the crowd and get that Olympic spirit, but obviously, it didn’t happen today.”

In the last match of the day, 19^th-seeded Miles Evans & Chase Budinger of the United States achieved a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) victory over 15^th-seeded Thomas Hodges & Zachery Schubert of Australia and picked up the last ticket to the men’s eighthfinals. Budinger was the best scorer of the game. He raised four kill blocks and finished with a total of 17 points.

The first of the eighthfinals starts on Sunday at 09:00 local time (07:00 UTC) with the women’s match between China’s Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi and Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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