Spain's Pablo Herrera showed the same form that won him a surprise silver in Athens at the Olympic beach volleyball on Tuesday, thundering the ball across the net to beat Austria 2-0 in their group match. Top-seeded duo Chinese Wu Penggen and Xu "Tiny" Linyin have stormed through their first two matches with 2.02-metre Tiny blocking almost everything that comes his way at the net.
At the other end of the rankings, bottom-seeded Japan put their first win on the board against the Netherlands in a three-set game of daredevil leaps and powerful overarm smashes. US second men's pair Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal also found their rhythm to beat Germany 2-0.
In the women's draw, US duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh lengthened their winning streak to 103 matches by beating Cuba 2-0 and the second-ranked teams from Brazil and China both won comfortably.