Vienna, Austria, August 3, 2019 - Due to inclement weather, the women's gold medal at the $600,000 A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch was postponed here Saturday afternoon and has been rescheduled for Sunday with first serve at 11.30 am (local time).
Quick links - Beach volleyball:
The women's gold match between second-seeded and newly-crowned world champions Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan of Canada and sixth-seeded Maria Antonelli/Carolina Salgado of Brazil will start Sunday's programme with the men's final four schedule remaining the same with the semifinal matches at 1 and 2:15 p.m.
The men's medal matches will be contested at 4.45 and 6 pm on Sunday as beach volleyball pairs from Brazil, Norway, Poland and the United States remain in contention for the gold medal at the A1 Major Vienna.
In the women's all-Brazilian bronze medal match that concluded Saturday’s programme, fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa defeated 25th-seeded compatriots Talita Antunes/Taiana Lima 2-0 (31-29, 21-19) in 60 minutes.
With the first set tied a 28-28, the match was halted for 53 minutes before the two teams returned to the centre court. Agatha and Duda immediately won the first set in two minutes by scoring three of the last four points. In the second set, Talita and Taiana led 18-12 and 19-16 as their Brazilian rivals had runs of four and five points to end the match by outscoring their opponent 9-1.
Competing at the A1 Major Vienna net are Brazilians Taiana Lima (left) and Agatha Bednarczuk.
The win for Agatha and Duda avenged a pool play setback to Talita and Taiana last week in Tokyo at the dress rehearsal event for the 2020 Olympic Games. Agatha and Duda rebounded for that setback to win the Tokyo Open gold medal by defeating Americans Alix Klineman and April Ross in the finals.
The men’s semifinals Sunday will pit fifth-seeded Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho of Brazil against 14th-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena of the United States in the first FIVB World Tour match between the two teams.
Sunday’s second semifinal features a rematch of last year’s Vienna finalists as top-seeded Anders Mol/Christian Sorum of Norway meet sixth-seeded Michal Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek of Poland. In the 2018 Vienna gold medal match, Mol and Sorum posted a 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) win in 38 minutes over the Poles.
The winning pairs Sunday will collect the $40,000 A1 Major Vienna first-place prizes along with collecting 1,200 qualifying points for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
