The number one team in the FIVB World Ranking and the top seed in the women’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament are so far living up to their status. On Thursday evening, Brazil’s Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) won their third consecutive straight-set match at the Eiffel Tower Stadium and topped the final Pool A standings, thus progressing straight to the eighthfinals.
Beach Volleyball Olympic Games Paris 2024
Ana Patricia & Duda still impeccable in Paris, ready to go all the way
Published 10:22, 01 Aug 2024
Ana Patricia in attack
Ana Patricia & Duda produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-10) sweep of their last pool-stage fixture, against 12th-seeded Valentina Gottardi & Marta Menegatti, and left the Italians in third place, expecting to find out if they will also continue straight to the last 16 or will have to go through the so-called “lucky-loser” sixteenthfinal round. Ana Patricia practically owned the net during the game and delivered a match-high 22 points, including 15 kills in attack, six kill blocks and an ace.
“We are very happy about these three wins,” Duda told the FIVB after the game. “We were very concentrated the whole time. We are giving our best and what makes me really happy is the concentration during the game, the will to win the games and the power that we have shown. It’s a dream to play here! Actually, not even in my best dreams I ever imagined myself playing at this stadium with the tower in front. It’s a real privilege to be here.”
Duda in action
Along their journey as a team, Ana Patricia & Duda have already won everything there is to win out there, but the Olympic title is the only one missing from their trophy shelf. Are they ready for it?
“We prepared a lot for the Games. It would be unfair to say that we are not ready for it. We are very ready for it and we’ll try to do our best to win this gold medal,” Ana Patricia stated.
“We will do our best to achieve it, but it is very hard,” Duda added. “The Olympic Games are the Olympic Games. It is our dream, it is the dream of our families, it is our coaches’ dream and we will try to do everything possible to get there.”
The second place in the pool that also comes with a direct ticket to the eighthfinal round went to Liliana Fernandez & Paula Soria. The 13th-seeded Spaniards finished on a 2-1 win-loss record after mastering a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) victory over Egypt’s Marwa Abdelhady & Doaa Elghobashy earlier on Thursday. Elghobashy was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, including three aces. Liliana led the winners with 17 points, including four blocks and two aces.
The last matches in Pool B were also played on Thursday. First, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists, 14th-seeded Mariafe Artacho Del Solar & Taliqua Clancy of Australia, hammered out a 2-0 (21-10, 21-16) shutout of Heather Bansley & Sophie Bukovec and left the Canadians winless at the bottom of the final pool standings. Clancy put away an impressive seven aces, to which she added three kill blocks and 10 kills in attack to finish with a match-high 20 points.
The Australians finished on a 2-1 win-loss record and had to wait for the last match on the day’s programme in Paris to find out their classification in the pool. After second-seeded Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth of the United States managed a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-12) comeback victory over 11th-seeded Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi of China, the final standings in the pool were determined. The Americans finished on top on 3-0 and advanced to the eighthfinals together with the Aussies, while third-placed Xue & Xia (1-2) will have to wait for the other pools to finish to find out whether they will have to play in the sixteenthfinal playoffs first. Heavy rain over Paris interrupted the match shortly after the start of the tie-breaker, but later on the game was completed. Xue was the top scorer with 28 points. Kloth led the winners with 23.
