Sanya, China, October 28, 2009 -- The last-time Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu competed together in an international Beach Volleyball event was at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the Chinese pair split for most of the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour season due to their participation with different partners for their country's National Games.

After a 14-month separation, Wu and Xu reunited here Wednesday for the US$380,000 Sanya Open presented by Olympic Bay by winning a pair of matches over teams from Venezuela and The Netherlands to advance as one of eight unbeaten teams in the 32-team double-elimination SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

With their two wins, the ninth-seeded Wu and Xu will play Mischa Urbatzka and Thomas Kaczmarek in an opening winner's bracket match after the 17th-seeded Germans posted a pair of upset wins Wednesday, including a 21-19, 21-23 and 16-14 victory in 64 minutes over top-seeded Reindeer Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of The Netherlands.

Nummerdor and Schuil entered the Sanya Open match with a 14-match SWATCH FIVB World Tour victory string after winning the last two international events in Finland and The Netherlands at the end of August. The Dutch also captured the European title for the second-straight year by winning the gold medal in mid-September in Russia.

Benjamin Insfran, who captured the inaugural Sanya Open with Harley Marques last November, won his opening two matches Wednesday with new partner Thiago Santos Barbosa as the fifth-seeded Brazilians posted victories over teams from Australia and Venezuela. Benjamin and Thiago will play fourth-seeded Martin Spinnangr and Tarjei Skarlund of Norway in another opening winner's bracket match Thursday.