Brazilians Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Berti ended the Swatch Gstaad Major dream for Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Joana Heidrich and with it denied the Swiss a guaranteed team in the quarter-finals.
Barbara and Fernanda showed no mercy on the Center Court, winning 21-19, 21-9, to set-up a Last 16 clash against… yep you guessed it, more opposition from Switzerland in the shape of in-form duo Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart.
The Brazil versus Switzerland meeting will be the final game of the day at 5pm CEST on the Center Court with the winners facing either Agatha/Duda or Strbova/Dubovcova in Saturday’s quarter-final.
At the bottom end of the women’s draw, there was an early victory for Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada against Joy Stubbe and Marleen van Iersel to set up a Last 16 clash against Rebecca and Ana Patricia.
The winners of that match will play either World Champions Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan or Latvian young stars Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina in what promises to be a series of top-class matches.
Elsewhere on the morning of day four in the mountains, World Championship silver medalists Alix Klineman and April Ross survived a first-set scare to advance to the Round of 16 by beating Russia’s Birlova/Ukolova. The Americans will now play Marketa Sluková and Barbora Hermannová in one of the most interesting Last 16 match-ups.
The winners of that match will then face either Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat or Talita Antunes or Taiana Lima. Again, it promises to be an incredibly round of knockout matches and all are available to watch live on BeachStream.
