USA and Canada invade Fort Lauderdale main draw

FORT LAUDERDALE, Forida, USA, March 1, 2018 - With the international beach volleyball circuit returning to Fort Lauderdale Beach Park for the third time in four seasons, the 10th-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa will play top-seeded Nicole Branagh and Lauren Fendrick of the United States with the winner advancing to the evening quarterfinals.

 

Silver medal winners at the 2017 Fort Lauderdale Major and facing elimination Thursday, Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa Duda opened play in the morning by posting a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) win in 34 minutes over seventh-seeded Joana Heidrich/Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland to advance as the third-place team from Pool G.

Other teams winning first round matches in the elimination bracket on Thursday were 15th-seeded Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, 16th-seeded Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia of China, 20th-seeded Carolina Horta/Taiana Lima of Brazil, 24th-seeded Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider of Germany, 27th-seeded Svetlana Kholomina/Nadezda Makroguzova of Russia and 31st-seeded Jamie Broder/Taylor Pischke of Canada.

The last match on Thursday where the winning team advanced to Friday’s schedule had13th-seeded Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat of the United States upseting fifth-seeded Maria

The women’s competition at the Fort Lauderdale Major concludes Saturday with the semifinal and medal matches on the Fort Lauderdale Beach Park center court. The men’s podium placement matches will be played on Sunday. The winning teams will share the $40,000 first-place prizes.