Itapema, Brazil, May 19, 2018 – Led by hosts Brazil, teams from six countries advanced to the medal rounds of the $300,000 Itapema Open after the conclusion of the quarterfinals stage on Saturday’s morning. The men’s and women’s semifinals of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour four-star event will happen in the evening session.
Brazil will have four tandems in the semifinals, two in each gender. In the men’s tournament, reigning world champions Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola where the first to qualify and they were joined by Vitor Felipe and Guto Carvalhaes.
Evandro and Andre, who eliminated Canada’s Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter in two sets (21-16, 21-13), will face Poland’s Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor, who posted a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) victory over the Netherlands’ Christiaan Varenhorst/Jasper Bouter. The teams will meet for the first time.
Guto and Vitor posted the most impressive victory of the quarterfinals round as they defeated the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen in three sets (21-18, 18-21, 15-13).
Their rivals will be another young team, the one of Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sorum, who prevailed over Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger/Nico Beeler in straight sets (21-18, 21-19). It will also be first matchup among the two teams.
Brazilian semifinal in the women’s tournament
Brazil's Duda Lisboa during the quarterfinals match in Itapema
The women’s tournament will have an all-Brazilian semifinal with Agatha Bednarczuk and Duda Lisboa facing compatriots Carol Solberg and Maria Elisa Antonelli. The teams have played each other five times since last summer, all in the Brazilian Tour, and Maria Antonelli and Carol won four of them.
Agatha and Duda advanced to their second semifinal appearance in the 2018 season after a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) victory over Germany’s Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider. Maria Antonelli and Carol, who already played in two finals this year, came from behind to overcome Czech Republic’s Kristyna Kolocova/Michala Kvapilova in three sets (26-28, 21-16, 15-12).
The international semifinal of the Itapema Open will feature Canada’s Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson and Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré. The teams have played twice in the World Tour in 2017, with the Swiss winning both times.
The Canadian duo, which will play its first World Tour semifinal, eliminated Czech Reupublic’s Marketa Slukova/Barbora Hermannova in two sets (21-14, 21-17) in the quarterfinals, while the Swiss duo needed three sets (21-14, 17-21, 15-11) to prevail over Germany’s Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch.