The Dutch are one of the eight teams still standing at the Danube Island

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Brouwer and Meeuwsen celebrate a point against the Americans

High temperatures and one of the best teams in the world on the other side of the net weren’t enough to stop Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen from advancing to the men’s quarterfinals of the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch. Seven different countries remain in contention for the medals at the Danube Island.

The Dutch needed all three sets (26-28, 24-22, 15-10) and a lot of mental strength to take down Americans Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena in the Round of 16. The match was played around noon and lasted 76 minutes, the most in the entire tournament.

“Against Nick and Phil it’s always tough battles and I think we lose more than we win,” Meeuwsen commented. “With all the heat, it becomes a very mental game and we just kept fighting. It’s a great feeling to win a match like this especially because we had a convincing performance in the third set. That gives us a lot more confidence to keep going.”

Their next opponents will be Brazilians Evandro Goncalves and Vitor Felipe, who also need three sets (21-16, 17-21, 15-12) to win their Round of 16 match, against Latvias’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs.

The other Latvian team competing in Vienna also exited the tournament in ninth-place as Aleksandrs Samoilovos and Janis Smedins were taken down by home heroes Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst in two sets (21-16, 24-22). The Austrians will play Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, who eliminated Brazilian qualifiers Ricardo Santos and Guto Carvalhaes after three sets (16-21, 21-19, 15-5).

Pedro and Bruno advanced after a victory over Alison and Andre

In the all-Brazilian duel of the Round of 16, Pedro Solberg and Bruno Schmidt had the upper hand as they downed Alison Cerutti and Andre Loyola in two sets (21-12, 21-18). In the quarterfinals, they will face Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl, who upset Russia’s Nikita Liamin and Viacheslav Krasilnikov also in two sets (21-18, 21-14).

“I think we did everything pretty well and that’s what you need to beat a team as strong as Alison and Andre. We had an inconsistent start here, but we’re growing. We’ve stuck together in the hard times and that helped us to go through them. Now we face a tough Polish team and we’ll try to explore their weaknesses. I’ve been playing againt Fijalek for ages now and he’s one of the best all-around players I’ve ever seen, while Bryl is very physical, but they certainly have some flaws, as we all do.”

The fourth quarterfinal matchup will feature two teams that started their campaigns in the qualification tournament in USA’s Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb, who advanced after a 2-1 (11-21, 21-19 , 15-11) victory over Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Illya Leshukov, and Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, who eliminated Austria’s Martin Ermacora and Moritz Pristauz in straight sets (21-13, 21-13).

The quarterfinals will take place during the afternoon while the semifinals and the medal matches are scheduled for Sunday, the last day of competition at the Danube Island.