Graudiņa/Samoilova fall to Olympic runners-up in Montreal quarterfinal

Latvian beach volleyball pair Tīna Graudiņa and Anastasija Samoilova were eliminated in the quarterfinal of the Montreal elite tournament overnight, losing to Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson. The Canadians are the 2024 Olympic silver medalists, 2025 world champions, and two-time Montreal tournament winners (2023 and 2025). The match finished 20-22, 18-21.

In the first set, the Latvians stayed close for much of the way, leading 13-12 and later tying at 20-20, but the Canadians pulled away to win 22-20. In the second set, the Canadian pair built an early lead, and although Samoilova and Graudiņa fought to close the gap, they could not level the score, losing 18-21.

The head-to-head record between the two pairs now stands at 6 wins for the Canadians against 7 for the Latvians when counted by individual sets.

For their fifth-place finish, Graudiņa and Samoilova earned 760 world ranking points and an $8,000 prize. The Montreal tournament is being held on the grounds of a Formula 1 racetrack.

A second Latvian pair, Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Uldis Fokerots, also competed in Montreal but lost in the first round to an Austrian team, failing to reach the quarterfinals.

Both Latvian pairs arrived in Montreal after last week's European Championship, where Graudiņa/Samoilova won bronze medals and Pļaviņš/Fokerots placed ninth.