Men's round of 16 matches of Beijing Olympics beach volleyball tournament will be held on Saturday and Chinese duo Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin is expected to make top eight.
The Chinese duo will take on Germany's David Klemperer/Eric Koreng, who advanced after winning a "lucky loser" match in the preliminary round. The German duo, placing eighth on the Olympics qualification rankings, is not much weaker in strength but if Wu/Xu play to their best standard, a win for them is expected.
Wu/Xu, placing fifth on the Olympics qualification rankings, has won five silver medals and three bronzes at world-class tournaments in the past two years.
In the preliminary round of the Beijing Olympics, they remained unbeaten. In the preliminary match with Spain pair Pablo Herrera, Athens Games silver medalist, and Raul Mesa, the Chinese controlled the rhythm of the match, winning over the Spanish team 2-0.
The Chinese duo, with 2.02-meter Xu and 1.98-meter Wu, is very efficient at the net. The Spanish pair said after the match they had no solutions to the attacks of the Chinese.
Defending champions Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego of Brazil will meet Dmitri Barsouk/Igor Kolodinsky of Russia and a step further for the title holders is almost certain.
Gold medal favorite, U.S. pair Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers lost the first preliminary but has fully bounced back, winning the last two preliminaries comfortably.
The 2007 world champions are expected to win the match with Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider of Switzerland on Saturday.
Most of other men's round of 16 matches will be hard to forecast as the strength of many teams are on almost the same level, as many coaches have said. Many encounters are about psychology and match strategy, they said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)