Kristiansand, Norway, August 13, 2010 - It was a successful Friday the 13th for teams from Brazil as four men’s Beach Volleyball pairs posted six wins along with two women’s tandems from the South American country advancing to the semi-finals at this week’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop.

The Otera Open, the 10th of 12 double gender events on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour this season, concludes this weekend with the women’s finals Saturday and the men’s medal matches Sunday as each gender’s winning team will split the $30,000 first-place prize. Brazilian women in the “final four” rounds Saturday are Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca and the Salgado sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara).

Leading the Brazilian men at the US$380,000 Otera Open were second-seeded Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego and fifth-seeded Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado as both teams advanced to quarter-finals of the winner’s bracket along with pairs from China and the United States in the 12th of 14 men’s events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar.

Winning a pair of elimination matches each for Brazil Friday were third-seeded Marcio Araujo/Ricardo Santos and 11th-seeded Benjamin Insfran/Bruno Oscar Schmidt as the South American country is in position to sweep a SWATCH FIVB World Tour podium for the first-time this season. Brazilian men have collected three medals at 23 different international events since the start of the international circuit in 1987.

With only one gold medal to their credit on the men’s circuit this season, Brazil has advanced three teams to a SWATCH semi-final 49 times in the previous 254 FIVB events. The Beach Volleyball players from the South American country have placed 1-2-3-4 seven times at men’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops. The last was at a June 2007 stop in Portugal were Emanuel and Ricardo topped the podium followed by Pedro Cunha/Franco Neto, Marcio Araujo/Fabio Magalhaes and Harley/Salgado.

The last time three Brazilian men’s teams advanced to a SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final four” was at the 2010 season opener in Brasilia where Alison/Emanuel, Benjamin/Bruno and Pedro Cunha/Thiago Santos Barbosa placed 2-3-4, respectively, behind American gold medal winners Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers.

Alison and Emanuel started the Brazilian success story with a 21-15 and 21-8 win in 34 minutes over 23rd-seeded Emiel Boersma and Daan Spijkers of The Netherlands to advance to a quarter-final match against 19th-seeded Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman of New Zealand, who upset sixth-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China 14-21, 22-20 and 15-7 in 50 minutes.

Harley and Salgado, who captured Brazil’s only men’s 2010 SWATCH title earlier this season in Shanghai, netted the second quarter-final victory for the South Americans with a 21-19 and 21-17 victory in 45 minutes over fourth-seeded Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena of the United States.

Dalhausser and Rogers, who clinched the point’s championship on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour last week in Poland, will be Harley and Pedro’s quarter-final opponent as the American Olympic champions spoiled the hopes of the host country with a 21-16 and 21-14 win in 41 minutes over ninth-seeded Tarjei Skarlund and Martin Spinnangr.

Saturday’s play opens with four elimination matches as Marcio Araujo and Ricardo play Skarlund and Spinnangr while Benjamin and Bruno meet Boersma and Spijkers. Fuerbringer and Lucena, who placed second two weeks ago in Austria, will be challenged by 15th-seeded Anders Lund Hoyer and Bo Soderberg of Denmark and Wu and Xu play 17th-seeded Renato "Geor" Gomes and Jorge "Gia" Terceiro of Georgia.