Reigning Olympic beach volleyball champion Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos of Brazil will start their journey to defend their title by playing Angoran tandem Emanuel Fernandes/Morais Abreu Saturday.

Seeded 22th on the Olympic listing, new comer Emanuel Fernandes/Morais Abreu appeared no match for the Brazilian pair who have registered an overall winning percent of nearly 80 percent in all matches. Ricardo is now a three-time Olympian as he captured the silver medal with Ze Marco in Sydney.

As the only African duo to compete in beach volleyball event, Fernandes said that he came here not for the medal but for his country.

The second-seeded US duo Todd Rogers/ Phil Dalhausser from pool B will face Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Martins Plavins from Latvia.

Rogers/Dalhausser has topped the Beijing Olympic qualifying list by winning four events during the Summer Games process.

On the women's front, China's Tian Jia/Wang Jie will fight Swiss duo Simone Kuhn/ Lea Schwar who replaced injured Austrian pair Montagnolli/Swoboda to compete in the Games.

In their encounter with 15-seeded Russian tandem Alexandra Shiryaeva/Natalya Uryadova, the first Russian women's team to compete in the Olympic beach volleyball tournament, four-time Australian Olympian Natalie Cook and Tamsin Barnett will battle hard to proceed.

Cook and the then partner Nicole Sanderson lost to Amercians Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs in their efforts to seize the bronze medal in Athens.

The beach volleyball preliminaries run through Aug. 9 to 14, followed by elimination match until Aug. 22. Top teams from each pool and two best third-placed teams advance to the top 16. The remaining four third-placed teams play two playoffs to determine the remaining two berths in top 16.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2008)