Franca, one-half of the London 2012 women's beach volleyball bronze medallists, and her partner saw off ninth-seeded Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy of Australia 21-15, 21-15.

They were joined in the last eight by Americans April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings, the winners in Moscow in 2014.

The US pair, who have won four tournaments this season, ended the hopes of home Russian pair Yulia Abalakina and Ekaterina Syrtseva, 21-14, 21-13.

Walsh Jennings, a triple Olympic champion, will be searching for yet another gold medal at Rio 2016 in August.

Karla Borger and Britta Buthe of Germany were among the other teams to advance, thanks to a 21-14, 21-17 success over Miller Pata and Linlin Matauatu of Vanuatu.

In the men's competition, American second seeds Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson were among the quarter-final qualifiers as they saw off Germany's Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik.

They needed three games to do so, however, eventually prevailing 21-13, 19-21, 15-10.

Fifth-seeded Dutch team Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst advanced by seeing off Mariusz Prudel and Grzegorz Fijalek, 15-21, 21-16, 15-12.

Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira of Spain knocked out home duo Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov, 22-20, 22-20.