Americans Hughes and Cheng advance to quarterfinals in Paris Olympics beach volleyball tournament

PARIS (AP) — Americans Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes advanced to the beach volleyball quarterfinals on Sunday night despite losing a set for the first time at the Paris Olympics.

The U.S. women won 21-18, 17-21, 15-12. They will play Switzerland's Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner, who beat Spain earlier Sunday.

In the other night match, Brazil’s Evandro and Arthur eliminated the Dutch team of Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde. Van de Velde was convicted of raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2016.

Defending world champions David Schweiner and Ondrej Perusic from Czechia fell to the other Dutch team earlier in the round of 16.

“We knew that if we can play well, we can beat them,” said Holland’s Yorick de Groot. “But for the last four matches they beat us, and we’ve been struggling against them. ”

The Netherlands will play Germany in the quarterfinals.

“The last time we played them was also the first time we beat them, so that was a good feeling for us and we’re going to take a lot of that into the next game,” said his teammate, Stefan Boermans. “They will also definitely see the footage back from that match and will adjust.”

The Czechs played in Tokyo but didn’t make it out of the group stage.

“To be a bit positive, it was a way, way better experience than Tokyo. Finally we experienced real Olympics," Schweiner said. “It was an unbelievable venue. The city, the country, the whole Europe is really living for the Olympics. It’s amazing and we’re feeling really privileged to go through it, to be here.”

Sweden, which arrived in Paris as the No. 1 team in the world, went just 1-2 in the group stage to land a tough Cuban team in the round of 16. The Swedes won the first set 21-11 but then fell in an extended second, 28-26, before clinching with a 15-11 result in the decisive third set.

“We only said that we have to go for it,” 22-year-old first-time Olympian David Ahman said. “’It’s going to be super tough, but we have to take every chance and believe in ourselves. Let’s go for it.’ And that’s what we did.”

In earlier women’s matches, Australia defeated the Brazilian team of Carolina and Barbara 2-0. Switzerland’s two women’s teams both won in straight sets: Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Boebner beat China, and Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner knocked out four-time Olympian Liliana Fernandez Steiner and her partner, Paula Soria Gutierrez, of Spain.

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