Representing Canada in the last eight will be top-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan, and second-seeded Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson.

The US’s hopes of success rest on ninth-seeded Alexandra Klineman and April Ross, and 26th-seeded qualifiers Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman.

Humana-Paredes and Pavan advanced to the last eight with a 21-16, 21-17 win over Russia’s Svetlana Kholomina and Nadezda Makroguzova at the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB)-organised event at the Gstaad Arena.

Bansley and Wilkerson beat Germany’s Karla Borger and Margareta Kozuch 16-21, 23-21, 15-12, while Klineman and Ross defeated fellow Americans Sara Hughes and Summer Ross 21-18, 16-21, 15-9, and Larsen and Stockman overcame sixth-seeded Brazilians Maria Antonelli and Carolina Solberg Salgado 21-23, 26-24, 15-13.

The quarter-final line-up includes a meeting between Humana-Paredes and Pavan, and Klineman and Ross.

Larsen and Stockman face third-seeded Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos Lisboa, whose Dutch opponents Joy Stubbe and Marleen Ramond-van Iersel forfeited their round-two match due to injury.

Defending champions Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany play Japan’s Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami, while Bansley and Wilkerson go up against Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannová and Marketa Slukova.

Laboureur and Sude beat Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho 21-16, 26-24 today.

Ishii and Murakami defeated Germany’s Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider 21-17, 16-21, 15-13, while Hermannová and Slukova overcame Switzerland’s Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli 21-17, 16-21, 15-9. 

Among those through to the semi-finals of the men’s event are Norway’s Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Sørum, who beat Brazil’s Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Pedro Solberg 19-21, 21-18, 15-12 in round two and Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle 21-18, 21-15 in the last eight. 

The first result means a Brazilian men’s team has not qualified for this event’s semi-finals for the first time since the start of the competition in 2001.

Next up for Mol and Sørum are the US’s Taylor Crabb and Jacob Gibb, who secured a place in their first-ever FIVB World Tour semi-final as a duo by defeating Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs 21-17, 19-21, 15-13.

The other semi-final pits sixth-seeded Adrián Gavira Collado and Pablo Herrera Allepuz of Spain against 12^th-seeded Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy.

Playing together in their 100th FIVB event together, Gavira Collado and Herrera Allepuz progressed to their 24th World Tour semi-final with 19-21, 21-16, 15-12 win over fourth-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands.

Lupo and Nicolai, meanwhile, beat fifth-seeded defending champions Philip Dalhausser and Nicholas Lucena of the US 21-18, 21-18.

Dalhausser and Lucena had entered this week’s event with 18-straight match wins in Beach Volleyball Major Series events with three-consecutive gold-medal finishes

The men’s semi-final matches are scheduled to be held tomorrow and will be immediately followed by the medal matches.

The women’s quarter-finals are also due to take place with the semi-finals and medal matches set for Sunday (July 15).

The Beach Volleyball Major Series is now in its fourth year having started in 2015.