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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Local title favorites Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt held off Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands in a full set thriller here Tuesday afternoon to enter the men's beach volleyball final of the Rio Games.
Alison/Bruno outblocked Brouwer/Meeuwsen 12-10 on their way to the 21-17, 21-23, 16-14 win in 59 minutes at the "Coliseu on Copacabana".
"We have to control ourselves because we always want more and more. The best thing is how we believe in our ability to play volleyball," said Alison. "It's not easy to start a game with the obligation to win another, but we reverse this pressure in a fun way, and that's why we're in the Olympic final."
"I was so nervous. We had a chance to win 2-0, but the Dutch played amazingly at the end of the set and didn't give up on any points. I said to Alison we needed to overcome those moments and to be mentally stronger and go up another step," said Bruno.
Alison and Bruno will now play the winners of the late Tuesday evening match between Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov of Russia for the men's gold medal at mid-night Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany upset top-seeded and heavily-favored Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca of Brazil 21-18 and 21-12 in the first women's semi-final.
"The four best seeded teams are in the semis here, so we knew that both matches would be really hard and tough, but we love tough matches and love going out there and going on that court and can't wait to play again," said Ludwig. "A lot of things worked again. We knew we could beat them. It was really important that we'd beaten them before so we believed in it and it definitely made us stronger."
