LONDON — Defending bronze medalists Zhang Xi and Xue Chen recovered from an opening loss to beat Switzerland on Monday and improve their chances of reaching the knockout round of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
The Chinese pair was upset in the very first match at Horse Guards Parade. The team would likely advance with a victory over Greece on Wednesday.
In other women's play Monday, medal favorites Juliana and Larissa of Brazil beat Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany. Czechs Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova defeated Natacha Rigobert and Elodie Li Yuk Lo of Mauritius also won in two sets. Maria Tsiartsiani and Vasiliki Arvaniti of Greece downed Russia's Anastasia Vasina and Anna Vozakova 18-21, 21-13, 15-12.
In the men's competition, straight-set victories went to Martin Spinnangr and Tarjei Viken Skarlund of Norway over Canadians Joshua Binstock and Martin Reader; Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins of Latvia over Freedom Chiya and Grant Goldschmidt of South Africa and Ricardo Santos and Pedro Cunha of Brazil over Britain's Steve Grotowski and John Garcia-Thompson. Germany's Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann beat Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin of China 13-21, 21-19, 15-8.
Later Monday, Americans Misty-May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings are to meet the Czechs, and Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal were to play Poland. All four U.S. teams won opening matches and likely to advance with another win.