Misty May-Treanor, back, and Kerri Walsh are off to the quarterfinals after a tougher-than-expected workout at the hands of the Belgians on Friday. Misty May-Treanor, back, and Kerri Walsh are off to the quarterfinals after a tougher-than-expected workout at the hands of the Belgians on Friday. (Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press)

Powerful American pair Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor survived a first-set scare to defeat a Belgian team and advance to the beach volleyball quarter-finals in Beijing.

Liesbet van Breedham and Liesbeth Mouha pushed the Americans to the limit in the first set on Friday, but the Americans hung on for a 24-22 win. They notched an easy 21-10 victory in the second set.

Mouha and van Breedham led in the opener 21-20 with the serve for the set but the Americans fought back to tie it up. The Belgians served for the win again at 22-21 and were foiled. The Americans went ahead thanks to a great block by Walsh, then won the game on a tip off a Belgian service return.

The Americans are the prohibitive favourites in the women's tournament. They are the defending Olympic champions, and have won three world titles (2003, 2005, 2007). Friday's victory was their 105th consecutive victory.

The Belgians placed 33rd at last year's world championships.

In other round of 16 action on Friday:

  • Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs swept to a 21-15, 21-13 win over Cubans Dalixia Fernandez and Tamara Larrea.
  • China's Tian Jia and Wang Jie beat Nila Haakedal and Ingrid Toerlen of Norway 21-13, 21-15.
  • Australians Barnett and Cook defeated Koutroumanidou and Tsiartsiani of Greece, 22-20,19-21,15-12.
  • Austrians Stefanie Schwaiger and Doris Schwaiger beat Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig 23-21, 11-21, 18-16.

All the teams that won on Friday advanced to the quarter-finals.