PARIS — Brazilians Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa withstood Latvia’s fast start to reach the women’s beach volleyball semifinals at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
The top-ranked duo won 21-16, 21-10 against Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina, but had to claw back from 6-0 down as the Latvians threatened a major upset.
The Brazilians sank to their knees and then hugged each other after winning on the second match point when Samoilova’s serve hit the net.
“It was difficult to read their serve, there was a lot of variation,” Silva Ramos said through a translator. “But we recovered well.”
The Latvian pair was surprised by the early lead over the Brazilians.
“But obviously they are better than that as a team, and brought it back to their level,” Graudina said.
PHOTOS: Brazilian women beat Latvia to join Canada in beach volleyball semifinals at Paris Olympics
Earlier, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson reached the semifinals by beating Spain’s Daniela Alvarez Mendoza and Tania Moreno Matveeva 21-18, 21-18 at Eiffel Tower Stadium.
Canada clinched a back-and-forth first set when Moreno Matveeva served long. After winning on their second match point, the Canadians dipped under the net and celebrated in front a handful of their flag-waving fans.
In Thursday’s semifinals, the Brazilians face Australian pair Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy - silver medalists at the Tokyo Games three years ago - while the Canadians take on Switzerland’s Nina Brunner and Tanja Hueberli.
Later Wednesday, defending men’s champions Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Soerum of Norway were set to play Spaniards Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Adrian Gavira Collado.
They were to be followed by Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh of the United States against Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar. Their bronze bronze medal in Tokyo was the first Olympic medal in beach volleyball for any Middle Eastern country.
Partain and Benesh carried American hopes after the women went out and were looking to avoid the first American medal shutout since the sport joined the Summer Games in Atlanta in 1996.
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