All China men's semi-final of AVC Beach Volleyball Championship, Haikou, China
The AVC Beach Volleyball Cup continued from 19-24 October, 2010 at Holiday Beach in Haikou, China. The 26 men’s teams from 13 countries came up with their brilliant plans and staged amazing performances. The championship started out with the preliminary
robin round and gradually covered the length of the tournament. The aspiring duos from Sri Lanka, Oman, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Yemen, Malaysia and Iran descended the court with their guns loaded. The elimination bracket
was on, which filtered the better teams for the ‘final four’ matches on Sunday, 24th October, 2010.
Two pairs from China proved their effort and confirmed their ambition for final victory by reaching semi-final stage. The top seeded Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin paved their way to the important semi-final match, where they were joined by Gao Peng and Li Jian.
The match provided them an opportunity to contest their abilities against each other and make a difference. The semi-final match continued for three sets and finally uncovered the finalist team. Wu/Xu were able to dismantle the strength of their opponents
and clinch a spot in the final showdown.
Wu Pengen/Xu Linyin vs. Gao Peng/Li Jian 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, and 15-9)
The first set of the match portrayed a different picture as Gao Peng/Li Jian started out really well. They produced good serves and scored points by pushing the ball with great power. The pair of Wu and Xu took a little time to form a judgement about the
challenger side. They settled down in their position and started the hard hitting. Both sides contributed points in their score and sneaked points from each other. The score soared up with close gap and lead was regularly traded between the two teams.
The see-saw battle continued until the end. It was an important match and no team was ready to lose the hope of getting their hands on the title trophy. Wu/Xu served well and good defence enabled them to create good impression on their rival side. However,
Peng/Jian sparked on the scene with nice delivery of floaters and tricky passes. The victory graced China 2 in the first set, while Wu/Xu had to acknowledge the better status of their opponents. First set was ended at 19-21.
Wu/Xu learned enough from the experience of first set. They grasped the game plan and hit the enemy lines with powerful shots in following set. The wonderful combination of blazing spikes and underhand shots helped them launch their power over Gao Peng/Li
Jian. The protagonists were back in the business and revenge was the order of second set. Fired-up Wu/Xu showed valiant effort to lead the second set with better score. They maintained their lead in the game and took the score to the finish line. Gao Peng/Li
Jian tried to repeat the score of first set but they faced a lot of resistance from other side, in order to do so. Wu/Xu smashed a 21-18 victory over them and equalled the game sore at 1-1.
Both sides had equal chances of winning the game after a tied score. Somehow, Wu/Xu was full of life after winning the second set. They were determined to thrash another set victory over their opponents and secure a place in the final match. The third set
began with killing shots and deadly spikes from Wu/Xu. They didn’t allow Gao Peng and Li Jian to poise their feet on the sand and kept them busy in diving and digging.
The exhausted pair of Gao Peng and Li Jian was restricted to low score in third set, while Wu/Xu acted wild and added consecutive points in their score. The 15-point golden set ended at 15-9 and the world saw Wu and Xu on the winning side. They qualified
for the final match of Asian Beach Volleyball Cup by defeating Gao Peng/Li Jian.
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