Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera & Adrian Gavira won Monday’s first men’s eighthfinal at the Paris 2024 beach volleyball tournament and advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in the team’s four Olympic appearances. On the women’s side, Tokyo 2020 semifinalists Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia also booked a spot among the last eight of the tournament.
18th-seeded Herrera & Gavira persevered through two tough sets against 10th-seeded Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak of Poland to deliver a 2-0 (23-21, 21-18) upset.
In a particularly dramatic ending to the first set, the Poles were the first to reach set point, but the Spaniards kept their cool and managed to close it off at 23-21. The nip-and-tuck battle continued into the second set, but after 13-13, Herrera & Gavira took control of the scoreboard and never looked back. Statistically, the Spanish team did slightly better than their opponents in each of the point-scoring elements. 42-year-old six-time Olympian and Athens 2004 Olympic silver medalist Herrera was the best scorer of the match with 18 points, all in offence, while Gavira produced two aces, three kill blocks and six kills in attack.
