Alison/Bruno make Olympic men’s beach volleyball final

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) — Home title favorites Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt held off Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands in a full set thriller here Tuesday afternoon to enter the men's beach volleyball final of the Rio Olympics.

Alison/Bruno outblocked Brouwer/Meeuwsen 12-10 on their way to the 21-17, 21-23, 16-14 win in 59 minutes at the "Coliseu on Copacabana".

"We have to control ourselves because we always want more and more. The best thing is how we believe in our ability to play volleyball," said Alison. "It's not easy to start a game with the obligation to win another, but we reverse this pressure in a fun way, and that's why we're in the Olympic final."

"I was so nervous. We had a chance to win 2-0, but the Dutch played amazingly at the end of the set and didn't give up on any points. I said to Alison we needed to overcome those moments and to be mentally stronger and go up another step," said Bruno.

In the second men's semifinal match, Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy eliminated Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov of Russia to meet Alison/Bruno for the men's gold medal on Thursday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst of Germany upset top-seeded and heavily-favored Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca of Brazil 21-18 and 21-12 in a women's semifinal match.

"The four best seeded teams are in the semis here, so we knew that both matches would be really hard and tough, but we love tough matches and love going out there and going on that court and can't wait to play again," said Ludwig.

"A lot of things worked again. We knew we could beat them. It was really important that we'd beaten them and it definitely made us stronger."

In the other women's semifinal, Brazil's Rippel Agatha/Barbara Seixas beat Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross of the United States in straight sets.