Chinese duo Wang Fan/Yue Yuan swept Australia's Mariafe Artacho and Nicole Laird 2-0 here on Wednesday to qualify for the women's beach volleyball top 16 at the Rio Olympic Games.
Wang had 14 kills and five aces and Yue added 12 kills and three aces as they took the 21-16 and 21-11 victory in 36 minutes.
The tandem fought to a 5-5 tie in the first set before Yue produced a pair of aces to push the Chinese duo up at 8-5. After the Chinese enlarged it to 15-9, Artacho/Laird steadily pulled with 18-16, only to find Wang/Yue run off three points in a row to wrap up the first set.
In the second set, Wang/Yue jumped to a 6-2 lead and never looked back.
"It's our first Olympics and we're here to enjoy the Games," said Yue Yuan. "We are very happy with our performance so far and we'll see how far we can go."
Wang/Yue have secured a second place finish in pool C with a 2-1 win-loss record and a berth in the 16-team knock-out stage.
"The results have changed nothing," said Wang Fan. "We'll continue to enjoy beach volleyball and enjoy ourselves and try to do the best we can."
