Klagenfurt, Austria, July 31, 2010 - Beach Volleyball powers Brazil and the United States will compete for the men’s medals at the US$600,000 A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam presented by Volksbank after pairs from the North and South American continents won two matches each here Saturday during the final elimination rounds of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event.

The two countries will be meeting each other in the semi-finals of the 14th annual A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam on the Metnitzstrand centre court at Lake Wörthersee. Seventh-seeded Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos/third-seeded Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego of Brazil will challenge 12th-seeded Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena and top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers of the United States, respectively, in the semi-finals Sunday morning.

Posting the biggest break-through to reach the semi-finals were Fuerbringer and Lucena as the Americans posted wins over fourth-seeded Pedro Cunha/Thiago Santos Barbosa of Brazil 18-21, 21-19 and 15-11 in 64 minutes and sixth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland 21-18 and 21-15 in 39 minutes.

After placing fifth and 17th in their last two SWATCH FIVB World Tour events in Norway and Switzerland, Alison and Emanuel reached their sixth “final four” this season by eliminating 26th-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany 21-16 and 21-13 in 46 minutes and 32nd-seeded Clemens Doppler/Matthias Mellitzer of Austria 21-12 and 21-10 in 35 minutes.

Ricardoand Marcio Araujo advanced to their second-straight SWATCH FIVB World Tour semi-final this season by ousting 21st-seeded Petr Benes/Premysl Kubala of the Czech Republic 21-16 and 21-13 in 45 minutes and 16th-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal of the United States 21-17, 11-21 and 15-8 in 50 minutes.

The defending A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam champions, Dalhausser and Rogers eliminated 15th-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil of The Netherlands 21-18 and 21-19 in 45 minutes and fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain 25-23 and 21-16 in 45 minutes.