A year and a half after making history in Tlaxcala as the first team to win a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event, Bárbara Seixas and Carol Salgado are back in the Mexican city and determined to bring another good result back home.

On Friday, the Brazilians gave their first step at the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, triumphing in their opening match in the 14^th edition of the tournament in Tlaxcala.

• Watch the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships live on VBTV.

In their Pool F opener, the Brazilians were pushed to three sets by Italians Margherita Bianchin and Claudia Scampoli, but managed to walk away with a win, prevailing 2-1 (23-21, 23-25, 15-9).

The 36-year-old Bárbara and Carol had to adjust their gameplan for the match less than 24 hours ago as the Italians were on the reserve list for the World Championships, but ended up getting a spot in the event after the withdrawal of Nigerians Francisca Ikhiede and Tochukwu Nnoruga.

“It’s great to start with a good win,” Carol told Volleyball World. “It’s very important for us to gain confidence for the tournament. I’m really happy that we made it. It’s amazing to be here again. I love the city and the people, they’re all so nice to us.”

The victory at last year’s Tlaxcala Challenge was the first for Bárbara and Carol as partners at the international level – after that success, the Brazilian veterans went on to win three other tournaments.

The two celebrated the positive start, but want to make some adjustments ahead of their next match, on Saturday, against Japanese Miki Ishii and Sayaka Mizoe – Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann, who topped the Asians 2-0 (21-12, 21-10) on Friday, are the fourth team on the pool.

“In the first match of a big tournament, our adrenaline always gets a little high, but we did a good job,” Bárbara commented. “We made some mistakes, but will adjust for the next matches. It was a lot of fun playing here in Tlaxcala last year and we’re coming back with high expectations. I hope we can count on the energy of Mexican fans again. Japan are a great team and are very strong defensively, so we need to be strong with our side out.”

Beach Volleyball World Championships - Match Schedule and Results

Eight women’s matches were scheduled for the opening day of the World Championships, with Pools C, F, I and L being the first to get going. Pool play continues on Saturday, when Pools A, B, D, E, G, H, J and K will have their opening matches.

The opening round of the event will continue until Monday, when the 32 teams that will advance to the elimination rounds will be known. The winners and second-placed teams from each of the 12 pools in each gender will advance to the elimination rounds, as well as the four best-ranked third-placed tandems. The eight remaining third-placed duos will need to play in a lucky loser round, with four of them moving forward.

Quick links:
2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter