Canadian tandem advances to world beach volleyball quarterfinals

HAMBURG – Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan are off to the quarterfinals at the world beach volleyball championships.

The world’s sixth-ranked duo defeated reigning European champions Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-9) in round-of-16 play on Thursday.

Toronto’s Humana-Peredes and Pavan, from Kitchener, Ont., are hoping to improve on their fourth-place showing from the most recent world championships in 2017.

The Canadians will face 18th-ranked Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth of Italy in the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinals and semifinals are Friday with the final on Saturday.

Meanwhile, two Canadian men’s teams were eliminated in the round of 32.

Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Morais Filho of Italy defeated Sam Pedlow of Barrie, Ont., and Sam Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont., 2-0 (21-18, 21-14).

Grant O’Gorman of Toronto and Calgary’s Ben Saxton lost 2-1 (22-24, 21-15, 15-8) to Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller of Austria