Vienna, Austria, August 1, 2019 - Led by defending A1 Major Vienna champions Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic, eight women's pairs won elimination matches here Thursday afternoon to advance to the Round of 16 at the US$600,000 FIVB World Tour event.
Quick links - Beach volleyball:
Seeded 22nd in the tournament, Hermannova and Slukova posted a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) win in 40 minutes over 15th-seeded Karla Borger and Julia Sude of Germany on the A1 Major Vienna centre court to tie the World Tour series between the two teams at 1-1.
"It was a good match for us," said the 28-year old Hermannova. "The Germans were coming off their best finish this past weekend in Tokyo where they placed fourth. It's good we only played one match today, so we'll have extra time to prepare for the Americans Friday morning."
With their win, Hermannova and Slukova will challenge top-seeded Alix Klineman and April Ross of the United States in one of eight Round of 16 matches Friday morning. The USA-Czech Republic winner will meet either 23rd-seeded Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia of China or 25th-seeded qualifiers Talita Antunes/Taiana Lima of Brazil in an afternoon quarterfinal match.
Klineman and Ross, who placed second last week at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic dress rehearsal event, had a bye into the Round of 16 after winning their pool Wednesday. The Americans have won both their matches with Hermannova and Slukova, including an elimination victory three weeks ago in Gstaad Major in Switzerland.
Other teams posting elimination wins Thursday were Wang/Xia, fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa of Brazil, eighth-seeded Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schutzenhofer of Austria, 14th-seeded qualifiers Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman of the United States, 21st-seeded Joy Stubbe/Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands, 26th-seeded qualifiers Margareta Kozuch/Laura Ludwig of Germany, 28th-seeded Katarzyna Kociolek/Kinga Wojtasik of Poland.
Friday's 12-match women schedule sets the field for Saturday final four matches where the winning team will collect the $40,000 first-place prize and net 1,200 qualifying points for the Tokyo 202 Olympic Games. The men's semi-final and medal matches will be played Sunday.