Day 3 of the 2016 Rio Olympics offered a busy slate of beach volleyball in both the men’s and the women’s tournaments.
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Another loaded day of beach volleyball took place Monday in Rio, with six matches each in the men’s and women’s tournament, including three big upsets.
The afternoon featured easily the biggest shock of the tournament so far. With a loud home crowd behind them, Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt are considered the gold medal favorites and were expected to roll over Alexander Horst and Clemens Doppler. However, the Austrians quieted the arena with a 23-21 first set win, and put away the match in the third with a 15-13 victory.
That was not the only upset for Austria on the day, as Team USA also fell victim. Fifth-seeded Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb could not find a way past Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl, who won both sets by a score of 21-18.
Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross avoided a similar upset, rolling to a 21-16, 21-9 victory over China.
Yet another surprise came from Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Jefferson Santos Pereira, who lost to Gibb and Patterson on Saturday. The duo came back from an ugly first set loss to topple seventh-seeded Spain, including a 15-12 win in the third.
In one of the most exciting matches of the day, Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands remained undefeated with a three-set win over Germany. The two teams were tied throughout the third, including at 14, before the Dutch pulled away 16-14.
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Brazil’s Barbara Seixas and Agatha Bednarczuk got a scare with an early deficit in the second set, but eventually pulled away to win 21-11, 21-17. Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland rallied past Australia after dropping the first set.