Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre and Germany’s Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler were the first teams to advance to the Paris 2024 Olympic beach volleyball quarterfinal for women and for men, respectively.

In a much anticipated high-calibre men’s clash between third-seeded Ehlers & Wickler and fourth-seeded George Wanderley & Andre Stein on Sunday, the Germans prevailed on the way to a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) victory and made it look easier against the former number one team in the world than it probably was. Ehlers led the way with 21 points, including the match winner. He was also the best blocker on the court, raising four stuffs towards the victory.

“It wasn’t easy at all,” he told the FIVB. “We know the Brazilians are such a top-level team. We’ve played them many times on the Tour and we always lost. This was our first win against them and it’s amazing to get that win here. They are so versatile and have so many shots, and I am so happy that we could put them under a lot of pressure with our service, so they couldn’t find their rhythm. I think that was one of the keys to success in this game. We’ll try to keep it going and hopefully we’ll manage to play in the quarterfinals as well as we played today.”

“It’s an amazing feeling!” Wickler exclaimed. “It was such a cool match to play under the Eiffel Tower. I think this arena is the best place I have ever played at. So this is something really special for us. We have our families and friends here and the support from the German fans was amazing. We did a good job and now we are really looking forward to the quarterfinals.”

Reigning world champions Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner of Czechia will take on Dutch standouts Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot next at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, starting at 13:00 local time (11:00 UTC). The winner of that match will face Ehlers & Wickler in the quarterfinals.

“I think now no match is easy,” commented Wickler. “There are a lot of tough matches in the round of 16 as well. We know all the teams. I think most of the ones in the playoffs have already medalled at Elite16 events, so everyone can make it through to the semifinals and even win a medal. So it’s really tough and I think we just have to give it all and in the end see if it’s enough or not, but we are sure ready to go all the way.”

16^th-seeded Esmee & Zoe and 11^th-seeded Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi of China opened the Eiffel Tower Stadium for eighthfinal business earlier on Sunday morning, with the Swiss celebrating a hard-earned victory in straight sets, 2-0 (29-27, 21-17).

The first set offered an epic battle that was extended deep into overtime. The Chinese team denied six opponent set points and also wasted two of their own before Esmee put away the 29-27 set winner at her team’s seventh opportunity to close the set off. The European duo were well in control for most of the second set, with Zoe spiking for the 21-17 close. The spiking and the serving were key to the Swiss team’s success in this match. Esmee fired five aces and 19 kills in attack to top the charts with 24 points. Zoe added another 18 points in offence and an ace, while Xia was China’s best scorer with 18 points.

Esmee & Zoe’s quarterfinal opponent will emerge from the eighthfinal between Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas and Australia’s Mariafe Artacho Del Solar & Taliqua Clancy to be played at 17:00 (15:00) on Sunday.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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