Mason, Ohio, USA, May 20, 2016 – Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross of the United States, the top seeds in the FIVB Cincinnati Open presented by the AVP, survived a scare to reach the quarterfinals Friday.
Second-seeded Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley of Canada weren’t so fortunate.
Walsh Jennings and Ross had to fend off the challenge from fellow Americans Lane Carico and Summer Ross to score a 21-13, 19-21, 15-7 victory over Carico and Ross, who began the tournament as a qualifier. They were bumped up into the main draw to fill out the field on the first day.
Walsh Jennings and Ross, who have met the eligibility requirements to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, will face Germany’s Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider under the lights at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Mersmann/Schneider, the No. 17 seeds, scored victories over Irene Hester Pollock and Caitlin Ledoux of the U.S., then topped the Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova, 21-17, 21-18, to reach the final eight.
Ross and Walsh Jennings defeated Slukova and Hermannova in straight sets in pool play. Carico and Ross had upended ninth-seeded Jen Kessy and Emily Day to open the elimination round.
Fan Wang and Yuan Yue of China, the No. 14 seeds, topped Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Plischke in the first knockout round then toppled Pavan and Bansley, 21-18, 21-14. Wange and Yue will face Jantine van der Vlist and Sophie van Gestel, who also won twice. They reached the quarterfinals with a 14-21, 21-15, 15-10 win over Dutch compatriots Rimke Braakman and Jolien Sinnema.
Third-seeded Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat of the U.S. topped Vanuatu’s Miller Pata and Lineline Matauatu, 21-14, 17-21, 15-7. Fendrick and Sweat, still in the running for a U.S. spot in the Olympics, will face Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo and Liliana Fernandez in the final eight.
Baquerizo and Fernandez, seeded fourth, overcame a slow start to defeat Japan’s Takemi Nishibori and Sayaka Mizoe, 13-21, 21-10, 15-8.
China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia, the No. 13 seed, scored two wins and reached the quarterfinals with a 21-14, 21-19 win over Switzerland’s 19th-seeded Nina Betschart and Tanja Huberli, 21-14, 21-19. They’ll face sixth-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany, who eliminated fifth-seeded Canadians Kristina Valjas and Jamie Lynn Broder with a 16-21, 21-14, 15-13 victory.