While 30 of the top 32-seeded men’s teams remain in the competition, the women’s field has lost four of its top ranked pairs, including third-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa and eighth-seeded Fernanda Alves/Barbara Seixas Brazil of Brazil, and 11th-seeded Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy of Australia.
Agatha and Barbara, who are playing with new partners this season, captured the gold medal together at the 2015 FIVB World Championships in the Netherlands followed by a silver medal finish at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Both players placed 17th this season as Agatha/Duda were eliminated by sixth-seeded Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic and Barbara/Fernanda were ousted by seventh-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada.
Eight countries remain in the women’s competition, including three each from Brazil and the United States, two each from Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland. Pairs from Cuba and Finland are also in contention in the women’s competition.
Brazil and the United States each have four pairs left in the 32-team men’s elimination rounds where 16 countries are represented in the bracket. Host Austria, Latvia and Poland have three men’s tandems each in the men’s competition followed by two each for Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia. Pairs from Australia, Belgium, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Qatar and Spain remain in the men’s bracket.
The 11th edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships presented by A1 is being staged at the state-of-the art venue at Donauinsel in Vienna.
A total of 216-matches will be contested over a 10-day period at the World Championships where the winning men’s and women’s teams will each split the $60,000 first-place prizes. The women’s medal matches will be played on Saturday and the men’s on Sunday.