Sweden and Germany advance to Olympic men's beach volleyball semifinals

PARIS -- Top-ranked David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden jump-set their way into the Paris Olympics ' beach volleyball semifinals on Tuesday, beating Evandro and Arthur of Brazil 21-17, 21-16 at Eiffel Tower Stadium.

In an earlier quarterfinal, Germany beat the Netherlands in straight sets to reach the final four, where one win guarantees it a gold or silver medal, and even a loss would leave it with a chance for the bronze.

“We were quite nervous, but I screamed everything out, every ‘nervosity’ — is that a word?” said the 6-foot-11 German Nils Ehlers after he and Clemens Wickler won 22-20, 21-15. “I was very nervous, for sure. It’s amazing to play here in front of this crowd, and I’m so happy that we have the chance to play two times more.”

The women took the sand for the night matches, with Australians Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy beating the Swiss team of Esmee Boebner and Zoe Verge-Depre in a tight three-setter, 21-19, 16-21, 15-12. The Aussies are the defending silver medalists, having lost to Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman in Tokyo.

“Look, it definitely stung,” Clancy said. “But we don’t even look back.”

Americans Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng faced Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner of Switzerland in the Tuesday finale.

Only traditional beach volleyball powers Brazil and the United States, along with host France, placed the maximum allowed two teams in each of the men’s and women’s brackets. The Americans still have Hughes and Cheng remaining, along with the men’s team of Andy Benesh and Miles Partain; they play Qatar, the Tokyo bronze medalists, in the second set of quarterfinals on Wednesday.

None of the French teams made it out of the group stage.

Brazil's loss means the sport’s spiritual home will not win a men’s medal for the second straight Olympics. The Brazilian men took gold in Rio de Janeiro and Athens and three other medals in between.

Ana Patricia and Duda play Latvia on Wednesday, hoping to avoid Brazil’s second shutout ever, and second in a row.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games