Brazil's world champion pairing of Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt knocked the USA's Phil Dalhausser and Nicholas Lucena out of the Olympic beach volleyball competition on Monday (15 August), in a dramatic quarter-final match at Copacabana beach.

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Spurred on by raucous crowd support, and responding well to windy conditions, the Brazilians overcame Dalhausser, the 2008 gold medallist, and his new partner Lucena in a gripping three-setter, 21-14, 12-21, 15-9.

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The Brazilians took the first set before Dalhausser and Lucena forced the tiebreaker. Alison Cerutti then stepped up to clinch the victory.

With a block to force match point and then a spike off Dalhausser for the winner, the man known as the "Mammoth" moved within one win of a second-straight Olympic medal. At London 2012, Cerutti won silver; at Rio 2016 he is now well positioned for gold.

Atmosphere inspires 

"We did really well in the first set, not so much in the second, but what matters is the way we came back in the third set, starting it well and taking distance, it was a fantastic match," Cerutti said.

Cerutti said he was thrilled with the response from the crowd. "It's amazing, eh? When they scream 'Brazil" it gives me goosebumps. It's so motivating. The best atmosphere I've played in. It's the Olympic Games."

Dalhausser said the windy conditions had played a part in the Brazilian victory.

"Right when warm-ups ended this wind came out of nowhere, it was dead calm and then it just started blowing. They just handled the wind better than us, that's basically the difference.

"It was really tough conditions today and I'm impressed with how well they did with it."

Rio 2016 beach volleyball: schedule and results

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