Mariehamn, Finland, August 20, 2010 - Teams from Brazil, China, France and the United States posted "key" wins here Friday at the US$380,000 PAF Open with eight other Beach Volleyball pairs chasing those undefeated tandems in the 13th of 14 men's events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar.

Being played on the Hotel Arkipelag courts where Brazilian and Chinese women's teams advanced to the "final four" rounds of the third annual PAF Open, the men's competition features 10 matches Saturday to set the lineup for Sunday's medal matches. The winning teams in each gender will share the $30,000 first-place prizes.

Saturday's featured match in the fourth-round of the winner's bracket will have fourth-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China challenging top-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of the United States. The second winner's bracket quarter-final match will have third-seeded Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos of Brazil playing the 18th-seeded Ces brothers (Andy and Kevin) of France.

The China vs. USA match will be the first meeting between the two teams since Wu and Xu defeated the Dalhausser and Rogers 21-17, 17-21 and 17-15 in the 57-minute gold medal match at June's Russian Grand Slam in Moscow. Prior to the Moscow meeting, the two teams had played five previous times during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons with the Americans winning each time.

Since Moscow, Wu and Xu claimed their second gold medal this season in Marseille last month while Dalhausser and Rogers have won the title at their last four SWATCH FIVB World Tour appearances in Switzerland, Austria, Poland and Kristiansand with a current 21-match winning streak.

Dalhausser and Rogers scored a forfeit win over eighth-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in their only match Friday as the Brazilians won the first set 21-15 with the Americans rebounding in the second set 21-11. With a third set pending to decide the match, Benjamin withdrew due to a right shoulder injury as the two teams were playing against each other for the first-time on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

Wu and Xu did play three sets Friday as the Chinese posted a 24-22, 18-21 and 15-11 win in 61 minutes over fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain. It was the second meeting between the two teams as Wu and Xu had defeated the Spaniards at the Moscow event when the Chinese won their country's first-ever men's SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal in the 24-year history of the international circuit.

Marcio Araujo and Ricardo advanced to their second meeting with the French by posting a 21-17 and 21-16 win in 43 minutes over sixth-seeded Martin Plavins and Janis Smedins of Latvia. At May's SWATCH Grand Slam stop in Rome, the Brazilians posted an 18-21, 21-19 and 15-8 win in 62 minutes over the Ces brothers during pool play.

After posting two upset wins Thursday, including a 21-18 and 21-16 win over second-seeded Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany, the Ces brothers earned a spot in the winner's bracket quarter-finals with a 21-14 and 21-18 win in 45 minutes over 26th-seeded Alexey Pastukhov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia.

Other teams still remaining in the competition with one defeat each are 14th-seeded Renato "Geor" Gomes/Jorge "Gia" Terceiro of Georgia, 16th-seeded Rhooney Ferramenta/Pedro Salgado of Brazil, 20th-seeded Sebastian Dollinger/Stefan Windscheif of Germany and 24th-seeded Casey Jennings/Kevin Wong of the United States.

In opening elimination matches Saturday, Gavira/Herrera play Ferramenta/Salgado with the winner facing either Benjamin/Bruno or Geor/Gia in a seventh-place as will the victors from the other two contender's bracket confrontations between Pastukhov/Semenov vs. Dollinger/Windscheif and Plavins/Smedins vs. Jennings/Wong.

After the PAF Open, the final stop on the men's 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar is next week in The Netherlands at The Hague. The women's 15-stop schedule concludes in China (Sanya, October 26-31) and Thailand (Phuket, November 2-7).