Porto, Portugal, July 31, 2010—The world’s four best young men’s Beach Volleyball tandems from Canada, Germany, Poland and Russia battled through a pair of intense matches Saturday at the Porto complex to advance to Sunday’s semifinals and medal matches at the 2010 SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championships, the inth annual event for players under 19.

Following their quarterfinal victories on Saturday, the two semifinals will feature Russia’s 24th-seeded and second-seeded qualification team Maxim Anufriev/Artem Kucherenko meeting Canada’s 18th-seeded Nick Del Bianco/Garrett May followed by Poland’s fifth-seeded Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak playing against Germany’s third-seeded Lorenz Schumann/Domink Stork.

Russia’s Anufriev/Kucherenko advanced to Sunday’s championship finale day by winning their quarterfinal match over Austria’s 21st-seeded Chrostoph Dressler/Lorenz Petutschnig, 22-20 and 21-13 in 33 minutes.

Advancing to meet the Russians in their semifinal match on Sunday, Canada’s Del Bianco/May defeated Russia’s fourth-seeded Andrey Bolgov/Ruslan Bykanov, 21-14 and 22-20 in another 33-minute quarterfinal match.

In the quarterfinal battle of Polish teams, Kantor/Losiak, who finished fifth in this tournament last year, overcame compatriots Bartoz Ksiezarek/David Popek, 21-19 and 21-17 in their 38-minute match.

In the final quarterfinal match of the day with both sets going to overtime, Germany’s Schumann/Stork outlasted Austria’s 13th-seeded Lorenz Koraimann/Simon Schorghofer, 23-21 and 30-28 in a 48-minute match, ending just when the sun began disappearing as the fog started rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean. It was the longest quarterfinal match of the day.