April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings celebrate a point during the women's beach volleyball preliminary round Pool C match against Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Nicole Laird of Australia at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Beach Volleyball Arena on Aug. 6, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Defending champion Kerri Walsh Jennings and her new partner, April Ross, easily won their opening beach volleyball match with a 21-14, 21-13 victory over Australia. The match that began at 12:34 a.m. took just 35 minutes.
Fellow Americans Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb also won their opener Saturday, beating Qatar 21-16, 21-16 on a day U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited one of the Olympics most festive venues.
A DJ spun a samba beat inside as thousands cheered on their home teams. Outside, beachgoers cooled themselves under an umbrella at one of the many open-air kiosks serving food, beer and the local sugar cane cocktail, caipirinha.
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