It didn't take long for beach volleyball legend Kerri Walsh Jennings and new partner April Ross to hit top gear on Copacabana beach in the first midnight match of Rio 2016.

The pair breezed past Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Nicole Laird of Australia in two sets (21-14, 21-13) in a pool C preliminary match at the Beach Volleyball Arena on Saturday.

Walsh Jennings and team-mate Misty May-Treanor were the gold medalists in beach volleyball at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Games.

In London, April Ross was on the other side of the net, picking up silver. In Rio, with her now partner Walsh Jennings, she may well go one better.

After the match, the duo were in confident mood.

"When we were in London (2012 Olympic Games) we said 'Now let's go win Rio' and we are on that mission every day leading up to the gold medal match," Walsh Jennings said. "We don't want to peak right now, we want to keep going up, we feel so good and it felt good to get this under our belt."

"We've envisioned this for so long and to actually get here and do it feels really really good," Ross said. "There has been a lot of preparation, mentally and physically and tactically.

"I think we just wanted to establish our presence and I think we did that."