Women’s Olympic Beach Volleyball Quarterfinals Odds & Picks
- Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes are now the gold-medal favorites in Olympics women’s beach volleyball entering the Tuesday, August 3 quarterfinals
- Top-seeded Canadians Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes will face Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar of Australia in their quarterfinal match
- Germans Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch upset gold medal favorites Duda and Agatha of Brazil in the Round of 16
Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes are the reigning world champions in women’s beach volleyball. They’re also the #1 seeds in the Tokyo Olympic tournament. Yet entering the quarterfinals they aren’t considered gold-medal favorites.
It’s the American tandem of April Ross and Alix Klineman that are now the +240 chalk to win gold.
The pre-tournament choice to be golden in Japan was the Brazilian duo of Agatha Bednarzcuk and Eduarda “Duda” Santos Lisboa. However, they were upset in the Round of 16 by the German tandem of Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch.
Olympic Women’s Beach Volleyball Quarterfinal Odds
| Match | Odds |
|---|---|
| Ludwig/Kozuch (GER) vs Ross/Klineman (USA) | +250/-350 |
| Ana Patricia/Rebecca (BRA) vs Heidrich/Verge-Depre (SUI) | -180/+135 |
| Kravcenoka/Graudina (LAT) vs Bansley/Wilkerson (CAN) | -110/-125 |
| Pavan/Humana-Paredes (CAN) vs Artacho Del Solar/Clancy (AUS) | -240+175 |
Odds as of August 2 at PointsBet
Quarterfinal action gets underway at 8pm ET on Tuesday, August 3.
Gold Medalist Still In Hunt
They’ve got one shocker in the bank. Now the German duo of Ludwig and Kozuch go in search of another upset in quarterfinal action. They face the Americans Ross and Klineman in quarterfinal action. Ross and Klineman were the #2 seeds entering the Olympic beach volleyball competition.
Ludwig defeated Agatha, albeit while both were playing with different partners, in the gold-medal match at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. They weren’t given much of a chance entering this tournament. The Germans were the #15 seed. In fact, they weren’t even the top-ranked German squad. That was Julia Sude and Karla Borger, who were ranked #14.
Team USA’s April Ross and Alix Klineman have eliminated Team Cuba and move on to the Round of 8 🏐 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/L4IauXHc6M
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 2, 2021
Ross and Klineman are 4-0 in Tokyo. They’ve dropped one set the entire tournament. Over the Olympic qualifying period, Ross and Klineman won more gold medals (five) than any other team.
Pick: Ludwig/Kozuch (GER) +250.
Carrying Brazil’s Flag
It’s now up to the tandem of Ana Patricia Ramos and Rebecca Silva (+1100) to carry on the Brazilian tradition. Brazil has won more medals (seven) than any country in Olympic women’s beach volleyball.
The Brazilians arrived in Tokyo on a roll. They won gold and silver in their previous two events. However, they were a disappointing 1-2 in pool play.
AQUI NÃO CHINA!!!
ANA PATRÍCIA E REBECCA ESTÃO NAS QUARTAS DE FINAL DE #Tokyo2020
2 SETS A 0 NA WANG/XIA (21-14/23-21)#beachvolleyball #JogosOlimpicosNoSporTV #TimeBrasil pic.twitter.com/Vne6k60yFI
— Seu Esporte (@SeuEsporteBR) August 1, 2021
Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich & Anouk Vergé-Dépré are the reigning 2020 European champions. Both have been to the Olympics, albeit with different partners. They’re 3-1 in Tokyo. That one loss was to Pavan and Humana-Paredes.
Pick: Heidrich/Vergé-Dépré (SUI) +135.
Other Canadians In Tough
Pavana and Humana-Paredes have hogged the headlines. However, Canada is the only country with two teams among the final eight. Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson are ranked #9 in the world.
Bansley and Wilkerson are rebounding from a 1-2 pool-play performance. They upset the sixth-ranked American team of Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil 22-24, 21-18, 15-13 in the Round of 16.
Congratulations to Tina Graudina on becoming the first Latvian, along with her partner, to win a women’s beach volleyball match at the Olympics! #USC2Tokyo pic.twitter.com/1WChoYTjx3
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) July 29, 2021
The Latvian duo of Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina were the 2019 European champions. They won five gold medals in their past 10 tournaments. That streak was beginning with the 2019 Olympic qualifying event.
They were seeded 17th entering the Olympics. The Latvians are 3-1 in Tokyo. Interestingly, that lone loss was when they were facing Claes and Sponcil in their opening match.
Pick: Kravcenoka/Graudina (LAT) -110.
Living Up To The Billing
Coming to Tokyo as the team to beat, Pavan and Humana-Paredes are unbeaten. In fact, they’re the only team in the tournament that’s yet to drop a set.
The Canadians easily handled the Spanish team of Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo McMillan 21-13, 21-13 in the Round of 16. The match took just 38 minutes to reach a conclusion.
Make that two #TeamCanada duos in the #Tokyo2020 beach volleyball quarterfinals 👯♀️👯♀️
Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes defeat 🇪🇸 Liliana/Elsa in two straight sets (21-13, 21-13) and move on to the next round 🙌👏 pic.twitter.com/r6fUx0LZVr
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) August 2, 2021
In five years as a tandem, Pavan and Humana-Paredes have reached the finals at 14 international events. They’ve won seven of those tournaments. That success list is including the 2019 world title and a 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal.
They defeated the Aussie duo of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar in that gold-medal match at the Commonwealth Games, right in Australia. Clancy was in the Rio Summer Games with a different partner. They lost in the quarterfinals.
Pick: Pavan/Humana-Paredes (CAN) -240.
An industry veteran, Bob literally taught the course on the history of sports at Elder College. He has worked as a Sports Columnist for Postmedia, appeared as a guest on several radio stations, was the Vice President of the Society For International Hockey Research in Ontario, and written 25 books.
