Women's pool play begun today at the five-star FIVB Beach World Tour event in Gstaad in Switzerland ©FIVB

Canada’s newly-crowned world champions Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan and the United States' runners-up Alexandra Klineman and April Ross survived first-set scares to post pool play wins at the five-star International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Beach World Tour event in Gstaad in Switzerland.

Second seeds Humana-Paredes and Pavan, who beat Klineman and Ross in the FIVB Beach World Championships final in Hamburg last weekend, started the defence of their title in the Swiss resort by defeating home duo Laura Caluori and Dunja Gerson 17-21, 21-7, 15-10 in Pool B at the Eisbahnareal venue.

With the win, Humana-Paredes and Pavan improved their record at the event to 13-1, having won all six matches in claiming the 2018 title.

They finished third in 2017 with their only setback being in the semi-finals to Brazilians Talita Da Rocha Antunes and Larissa França.

"We love playing in Gstaad - Melissa and I have had some really big successes here, and some of my top beach volleyball memories surround this tournament," Pavan said.

"Today, we got out to a very slow start. 

"I think we were both more emotionally drained from Hamburg than either of us realised, and it took some time to get rolling again. 

"We knew that the first match would be a grind after everything that has happened recently, so we are glad to put that one behind us and continue with the tournament."

Third-seeded Klineman and Ross, meanwhile, used a strong third-set performance to overcome Poland’s Katarzyna Kociolek and Kinga Wojtasik 18-21, 22-20, 15-4 in Pool C.

With the women only playing the first round of pool play matches today, the second round is due to be contested tomorrow.

Humana-Paredes and Pavan meet Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Carolina Solberg Salgado, while Klineman and Ross play Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo McMillan and Liliana Fernández Steiner.

In the men’s event, four-time Gstaad champion Philip Dalhausser and US partner Nicholas Lucena picked up two wins today to secure first place in Pool D.

The fourth seeds beat fellow American duos of Chase Budinger and Casey Patterson, 21-10, 21-13, and Taylor Crabb and Jacob Gibb, 21-16, 21-19.

It earns them a first-round bye when the elimination rounds start tomorrow.

Swiss-born American Dalhausser initially won a Gstaad gold medal in 2007 with Todd Rogers at the FIVB Beach World Championships, and the pair triumphed together again in 2010.

He also shared top spot on the podium with Sean Rosenthal in 2014 and with Lucena in 2017.