Mariehamn, Finland, August 19, 2010 - A day after playing in a persistent rain and in the shadows of darkness, the teams competing here Thursday in the US$380,000 PAF Open were treated with near-perfect weather conditions as three of the top four-seeded teams advanced to the quarter-finals of the women's bracket after winning their matches on the Isle of Åland.

Led by two-time PAF Open gold medal winners Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil, four unbeaten teams remain in the competition for the $30,000 first-place prize in the 12th of 15 stops on the 2010 women's SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar with eight other Beach Volleyball pairs that have one defeat each in the double-elimination event.

The top-seeded Juliana and Larissa scored a 21-19 and 21-7 win in 35 minutes over 24th-seeded Liesbeth Mouha/Liesbet Van Breedam of Belgium in their only match Thursday to extend their current SWATCH FIVB World Tour winning streak to 38-straight victories since losing to China's Chen Xue and Xi Zhang in a semi-final this past June at the Russian Grand Slam in Moscow.

Jen Kessy and April Ross will try to spoil the Brazilian victory string as Juliana and Larissa's quarter-final opponent as the fourth-seeded Americans advanced unbeaten to Friday's play with a 21-15 and 21-12 win in 35 minutes over 12th-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna and Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins of Georgia. Juliana and Larissa have a 13-4 edge in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour matches with the Americans, including a 5-1 mark this season.

Friday's other winner's quarter-finals will be an All-Brazilian affair as second-seeded Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes faces sixth-seeded Vivian Cunha and Taiana Lima. It will be the first SWATCH FIVB World Tour meeting between the two teams as Vivian and Lima will be playing their eighth PAF Open match after posting a pair of victories on Monday (Country Quota), Tuesday (Qualifying) and Wednesday (Main Draw).

Both teams have competed in SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal matches this season, including title confrontations against Juliana and Larissa. Antonelli and Talita won the French Open in Marseille last month after losing the Norwegian Grand Slam title match to Juliana and Larissa in Stavanger. Vivian and Lima won 10-straight matches at the Austrian Grand Slam before falling to Juliana and Larissa in the Klagenfurt finale three weeks ago.

Antonelli and Talita, who placed 17th last week at the SWATCH stop in Kristiansand, Norway, advanced unbeaten with a 21-15 and 25-23 win in 41 minutes over seventh-seeded Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland. Vivian and Lima's seventh PAF Open win was a 21-19 and 21-11 victory in 34 minutes over third-seeded Xue and Zhang.

Friday's elimination rounds start with the ninth-place matches as the German pairs of 23rd-seeded Geeske Banck/Anja Gunther and 29th-seeded Jana Kohler/Julia Sude won two contender's bracket matches each Thursday along with the fifth-seeded Salgado sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara) of Brazil and 18th-seeded Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti of Italy.

In the upper half of the bracket where Juliana/Larissa and Kessy/Ross are situated, Cicolari/Menegatti will challenge Saka/Rtvelo while Kohler/Sude will meet Mouha/Van Breedam with the two winners facing each other in a seventh-place match. The victors of the seventh-place game will play either Antonelli/Talita or Vivian/Lima in the contender's quarter-final match with the winner advancing to the semi-finals.

On the bottom half of the bracket where Antonelli/Talita or Vivian/Lima will be playing for a spot in Saturday's "final four" rounds, the Salgados will play Kuhn/Zumkehr in an opening ninth-place match with the winner facing either Xue/Zhang or Banck/Gunther in a seventh-place confrontation. The survivor from those matches will play either Juliana/Larissa or Kessy/Ross for the last "final four" berth.

PAF Open competition continues through the weekend with the women's "final four" matches Saturday followed by the men's semi-finals and podium placement matches Sunday on the Hotel Arkipelag centre court. The men’s Main Draw play started Thursday where reigning Olympic champions Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers of the United States leads the field.