The quarter-finals are set at the ITF Beach Tennis World Cup after another thrilling day of action on Copacabana beach.

Spain will face Germany, Italy take on Aruba, hosts Brazil get Chile and Russian Tennis Federation have a mouth-watering clash against France as the competition enters the knockout stage from Friday onwards.

Spain cruised to a 3-0 win over Chile after Eva Palos and Ganesha Diaz defeated Paola Basaure and Javiera Veloso 6-2 6-3 in the women’s doubles before Antomi Ramos and Saulo Tejada double bagelled Rolly Cabezas and 52-year-old Victor Velasquez. 

"We are very happy to win the group,” explained Ramos. “It was not difficult, despite losing in the men’s Doubles against Portugal, but today we entered more focused and did a good job."

Spain know they will have a difficult battle on their hands against Germany but were pleased to avoid the tournament hosts in the last eight.

"I prefer the German team. Brazil is a strong team and they have the crowd here. Hopefully we can get Brazil in the final," added Ramos. "Germany has a good team with the Ringlstetter brothers and Maraike Biglmaier in women’s doubles."

Italy topped their group on Thursday, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the top seeds as they were pushed to a decisive mixed doubles match against France.

Giulia Gasparri and Ninny Valentini, world champions in Terracina, showed their class in a 6-1 6-0 victory over Ana Bigot and Severina Bouchacourt. It was the first time the Italian duo had been able to complete a match on court together after Valentini suffered a knee injury in the World Championships on home soil last month.

"I am very happy to be here,” said Valentini. “It was a good day. After my injury, I feel much better from a few weeks ago. Happy to have the chance to play.”

Gasparri confessed to being worried about her partner: "It was a good game today. I was a little scared with Ninny’s conditions, but we had a good performance."

Theo Irigaray and Nicolas Gianotti completed a good win over Marco Garavini and Matthia Spoto 6-4 7-6(3) to get France back into the tie, but the deciding point came in the mixed doubles with Gasparri and Marco Faccini beating Pauline Mannarino and Mathieu Guegano 6-2 6-3.

Italian captain Simona Bonadonna said: "We knew the mixed could decide the tie. The men’s doubles can win or lose. It was very windy today, impossible I can say, very difficult to play. I am happy with the win."

Russian Tennis Federation secured top spot in Group D with a 3-0 win over Aruba and will now play France in the quarter-finals in what is sure to be a close contest.

The last tie of the group stage saw hosts Brazil taking on Germany in the night match on Centre Court. Rafaella Miiller and Marcela Vita were made to work harder than the 6-1 6-1 scoreline against Maraike Biglmaier and Margarete Pelster suggests before Andre Baran and Vini Font came back from a set down to defeat Benjamin and Manuel Ringlstetter 4-6 6-0 [10-2].

Baran said: "We changed our attitude, became more agressive. [Alex] Mingozzi made us analyse the match, showing we must be more agressive, giving them less court and then we started playing much better and with more confidence. They stepped back and started to respect more our team.

"It was the famous death group, the most difficult one. Venezuela was a tough one, then Germany that always give us a hard job. But we deserved [to win], the girls worked well and we did a good job. The team is very united and the crowd also helped."

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