LONDON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China advanced into the knockout stage of the women's beach volleyball by beating Greece pair Vasiliki Arvaniti/Maria Tsiartsiani 2-0 on Wednesday in the London Olympics.

The bronze medallists of Beijing Olympics Xue/Zhang, who suffered a shocking 1-2 defeat at the opener of the tournament, backed on track afterward and beat the Greece women 21-17, 21-16 in their final preliminary match of Pool B in front of nearly 15,000 spectators at the Horse Guard Parade, centre London.

With a 2-1 win-loss record at the pool stage, Xue and Zhang secured a top place in the pool B and edged out the Greece pair, 1-2, from the elimination round.

"We don't know the opponent next round yet," said Xue, "But whatever team we will face, we will keep the rhythm. We are ready to face any teams."

Xue/Zhang started determinedly and their quick work paid off as they led from the start, taking the first set comfortable 21-17. The winning momentum of the Chinese pair continued as they rallied to a significant 6-0 lead in the second set.

Trailing at 9-17, Arvaniti/Tsiartsiani geared up with a 6-0 run by pouring their serving fires on Zhang and fought back to 15-17 to force China call a time-out.

"I would be crashed if I met this before," said Zhang, "But this time I was not. I was not worried about the score because I knew I could improve my reception. If I didn't, we still had the chance to win the deciding set."

After the game resumed, Xue/Zhang backed on track and finished the set through some powerful serving to win the set 21-16.

"We were happy with our performance. They were clearly better. We needed to perform better serves and improve our block defence," said Tsiartsiani after the match.

With the victory, Xue and Zhang extended their winning trend to six-to-nil against Arvaniti and Tsiartsiani from 2010.

Later on Wednesday, Russian pair Anastasia Vasina/Anna Vozakova defeated Simone Kuhn/Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland 2-1 to book another berth of the Pool B with a 2-1 win-loss record.

Zhang scored 24 kills to lead the game and Xue added 5 blocks, while Tsiartsiani led the Greek team with 19 kills. Enditem

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