Gold, Silver and Bronze medallist Women teams - SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam 2010
The faster, the stronger, the taller, and the ultimate hottest Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil achieved big breakthrough once again with their final victory in the SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Women’s Grand Slam 2010.
In the final combat of the SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam, they hit the podium with a victorious gait which showed their level of confidence. The Chinese fourth-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang stood firm on the other side of the court but they failed to save points against Juliana and Larissa’s mighty shots. Julian/Larissa grabbed their 35th international gold medal at the $600,000 Mazury Orlen Grand Slam at Stare Jablonki, Poland.
The Chinese Xue and Zhang, who won the bronze medal at 2008 Beijing Olympic, made a great achievement to reach the final round of Mazury Orlen Grand Slam. Their expectations were high, as they put in their best efforts in the game. Xue and Zhang started the first round with some nice shots and conquered the first set. However, the second set had a different tone, the dominating spear-shots of Juliana and Larissa devastated the defence line of Chinese players. Juliana/Larissa posted 25-23 victory in the second set.
The Chinese Xue and Zhang tried to make a come-back in the game but all their effort went futile before the explosive Brazilian top-seeded pair. The final set ended in the favour of Brazilian team and Juliana/Larissa locked the gold medal in their custody for another year. It was a major knock for them as they tied the American Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh’s record of winning most SWATCH FIVB World Tour titles.
In June 2010, Juliana and Larissa were defeated by the same Xue and Zhang in the semi-final of the SWATCH FIVB Russian Grand Slam in Moscow. The Chinese pair scored 12-21, 21-14 and 15-13 points and won the match against Brazilian Juliana/Larissa. That was an aching experience for the top-seeded Brazilian team. Nonetheless, they took revenge in the next Grand Slam at Norway in the month of July. They eliminated Xue and Zhang from the quarter-final of the Norwegian Grand Slam in Stavanger. At present, Juliana/Larissa have pushed the Chinese pair far behind with their 13-5 edge in the SWATCH series including three gold medals.
The invincible partnership between Juliana and Larissa was formed in 2004 and since then they have played the title matches 52 times and have won most of their matches. Recently, they dismissed the pairs from Switzerland and Russia to qualify for the “final four” matches.
The 2010 season awarded them with six gold medals. The total number of their gold medals has now extended to 35. The last Grand Slam at Klagenfurt, Austria was also won by Juliana/Larissa, and they kept on the same course of winning in the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam. They successfully defended the title and received the prize money which increased their digits to $2,028,350 i.e. second to Brazilian Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede, who hit $2,207,965.
The last SWATCH FIVB Grand Slam had a distinct feature that it involved all the Brazilian teams in the final match. In the Mazury Grand Slam, the other Brazilian pair, which comprised of Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes, struggled to reach the final spot but Chinese Xue and Zhang detracted them and pushed them behind the semi-final stage. However, the second-seeded Antonelli and Talita finished third in the game and won the bronze medal. They shared a total $23,000 for the third place finish in the game.
The beach volleyball fury has shifted to Norway, which is currently hosting a 6-day SWATCH FIVB event.
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