Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson entered this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Hamburg in the best moment of their young partnership, coming from a triumph in their home tournament in Montréal three weeks ago.

An upset in their opening match on Thursday jeopardized their momentum, but the Canadian Olympians reacted with back-to-back wins and finished pool play in first place in Pool B, advancing directly to the quarterfinals at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Part of a pool with three Olympic medalists in the German event, the Canadians dropped their opening match to Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti on Thursday, but displayed progress in their second match of the opening day, sweeping Chinese Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia.

On Friday, Melissa and Brandie had arguably their best performance in the tournament so far, taking down the home team of Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann, which had won four consecutive matches before their encounter, in straight sets (21-16, 21-18).

With the result, the Canadians overcame the Germans, who also had two wins in three pool play matches, in the standings and finished first in Pool B, advancing directly to the quarterfinals. Xue and Xia, who defeated Ágatha and Rebecca in the tie-breaker (16-21, 21-17, 15-13) on Friday, ranked third and will compete in the Round of 12 alongside Ludwig and Lippmann.

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Pool A ended with Brazilians Ana Patrícia Ramos and Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa in first place. The reigning world champions overcame New Zealanders Alice Zeimann and Olivia MacDonald in straight sets (21-11, 21-18) to secure their third victory in Hamburg. Their compatriots Carol Salgado and Bárbara Seixas and Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, who met on Friday with the Brazilians triumphing in two sets (21-15, 21-16), advanced to the Round of 12.

“Playing New Zealand was a challenge because we didn’t know them very well,” Ana Patrícia explained. “But our game plan worked really well and we’re excited to get on the court again tomorrow.”

The remaining two pools had American duos at the top of the standings. Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss were the winners in Pool C after they swept (21-13, 21-18) French Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard. The Europeans ranked third and will play in the Round of 12, as well as Swiss Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli, who downed Germans Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger 2-1 (21-16, 18-21, 15-13) and finished second.

In Pool D, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes confirmed the top spot with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) win over Thais Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee and Taravadee Naraphornrapat, who were eliminated. In the other match of the day, second-placed Germans Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Müller overcame third-placed Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi in straight sets (21-19, 21-19).

The elimination rounds begin on Saturday, at 10:30 local time (08:30 UTC), with the four Round of 12 matches – Menegatti/Gottardi vs. Brunner/Hüberli, Xue/Xia vs. Carol/Bárbara, Ludwig/Lippmann vs. Tina/Anastasia and Tillmann/Müller vs. Placette/Richard.

Melissa/Brandie, Duda/Ana Patrícia, Kloth/Nuss and Cheng/Hughes are waiting for their next opponents in the quarterfinals, which are set to begin at 16:00 local time (14:00 UTC). The semifinals and medal matches will be held on Sunday in Hamburg.

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