Brazilian duo advances to the qualifiers of Beijing Grand Slam – Volleyball news
The 2012 Beijing Grand Slam women’s beach volleyball tournament kicked off on Monday in China and featured the Country Quota Playoffs on day-1.
A total of six duos from Brazil and Germany joined the CQs and competed for three empty slots in the Qualification Tournament. Brazilian Country Quota Playoffs brought duos of Angela Vieira/Liliane Maestrini and Maria Clara Salgado Rufino/Raquel Pellucci
on the centre court. The former displayed stellar feat and pulled off success in the tournament opener. They posted 2-1 (16-21, 21-11, 15-9) victory over Maria Clara and Raquel in 48 minutes. Vieira/Lili rallied from one set down to prove their supremacy on
the net.
Maria Clara and Raquel jumped out of the gate and set a perfect tone for competition with their mighty serves. Raquel made good use of her forearms and delivered back-to-back attacks. They held off Vieira/Liliane for 21-16 win in the first set.
However, Vieira/Lili responded in the following sets. They levelled the score by winning second frame and earned the winning status by claiming another set in row. Vieira and Lili emerged successful in the Country Quota Playoff, while the losing teams were
disqualified.
With victory in the Country Quota Playoff, victorious Brazilian duo advanced to the next stage of the tournament.
“Brazilian country-quota matches are very hard to play, because we know each other very well. We tried to make our best, to play together, sometimes they were playing better than us, but we can play beautiful game for the crowd and for us. That’s the most
important thing,” said Lili after the match.
She further added, “We want semifinal and final, for sure, we expect our best. We went to the test event in London. It’s a really nice place and we want to play there, but I think it’s difficult now, because Talita/Antonelli and Larissa/Juliana have many
points, we just expect to make our best.”
Like other SWATCH FIVB World Events the Beijing Grand Slam will follow the same pattern. The tournament has been opened with Country Quota Playoffs. Next up, the tournament will enter Qualification Tournament and 32 teams will come into stride.
Successful teams of the Qualifiers will move ahead and reserve their seat at the 32-team Main Draw. The influential Main-Draw will initially feature three rounds and top sixteen teams of the competition will enter the quarter-finals. With single-elimination
bracket, low performance teams will be disqualified along the way.
Furthermore, top duos will compete for the semi-finals and only four teams will advance to the final round of the Beijing Grand Slam. Final Round will feature two semis, the grand final match and classification match for third position. Eventually, top team
of the tournament will take away the title trophy.
Tags: