SWATCH FIVB PAF Open 2010, Juliana & Larissa top Main Draw stage
Let the professionals do it better!
The top aces of beach volleyball Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca won their 5th SWATCH FIVB World Tour tournament. They taught a lesson to the teams from Finland and the United States in Main Draw competitions on Wednesday, 18th August 2010.
Moving forward from Country Quota matches and the Qualification Tournament, the top-seeded Juliana/Larissa entered the third day of SWATCH FIVB PAF Open. The Brazilians clashed with the Finnish 32nd seeded Hanna-Mari and Riikka Arminen in the first Main Draw match on Wednesday. The courts of Hotel Arkipelag saw an amazing competition, where Juliana and Larissa subdued their opponents in 30 minutes. They post a 21-8 and 21-14 win over Finland’s team, who were making their international debut.
In the second match, 16th-seeded Angie Akers and Tyra Turner of USA faced Juliana/Larissa and gave up after 34-minutes of play. Juliana/Larissa dismissed them by extending the points to 21-14 and 21-11 in two sets. It was their 7th consecutive win against Americans, Angie and Tyra.
Juliana and Larissa successfully cleared the Main Draw on Wednesday and stepped forward to Thursday’s matches where they faced 24th-seeded Belgian Liesbeth Mouha and Liesbeth Van Breedam. Other than Juliana/Larissa, the third-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, also won their matches on Wednesday and got a promotion to the next stage.
Juliana and Larissa are truly on the verge of becoming the World’s most dominating team in international beach volleyball history. They have been making waves since the start of this season. Juliana/Larissa won the gold medal at Otera Open Kristiansand, Norway last week. In addition to, SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam, Poland, A-1 Grand Slam Klagenfurt, Austria and various other SWATCH FIVB events in this season, were totally dominated by them.
Generally, Brazilian pairs have always been on the top in the game of beach volleyball. In the past, Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede had ruled the game as they captured six championships between 1997 and 2004. In Brazil’s men’s category, Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos held the top spot from 2003 through 2007. Juliana and Larissa are currently keeping the great tradition alive by achieving success after success. In the previous five years expect for the year 2008, they have not let anybody take the driving seat. They topped the standing in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the year 2008, knee injury gave Juliana a hard time and hampered their team performance. But young athletes rocked the sand again in 2009.
Although, the duo has proved their worth in every competition, if there is anything missing in their achievement diary, it has to be the Olympic medals and World championships. Taking a glance at other top Brazilian pairs, Adriana and Shelda claimed Olympic silver medals in 2000 and 2004 and twice in World Championships (1999 and 2001). In the men’s section, Emanuel and Ricardo, also have two Olympic gold medals and a World title to their credit.
Juliana and Larissa expressed delight about their ever-improving game and disclosed their feeling after winning the two Main Draw competitions on Wednesday. The 27-year old Juliana said, “Winning the point’s championships is always one of our goals at the start of the season. Right now, we are playing our best Beach Volleyball of the season and have been able to meet every challenge. We are tired right now like all the players due to the travel. We are thankful that we have a great support-staff that helps us to prepare for each tournament”.
Tags: