The SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam - Teams from Brazil, Austria, and China make to Women Quarter-final show
The SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam 2010, touched the important phase of quarter-finals on Friday, which promoted teams from Brazil, Austria and China to the “final four” stage.
A total of four pairs survived up till Friday 6th August 2010 and three out of them were the winners of SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medals this season.
Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca – Brazil
Chen Xue/ Xi Zhang - China
Barbara Hansel and Sara Montagnolli - France
Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes - Brazil
Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes of Brazil won the gold medal at the last FIVB World Series 13 Championship in Marseille, France. On the other hand, Juliana and Larissa have series of wins to their names. They won the gold medal at last SWATCH FIVB A-1 Grand Slam Tournament in Klagenfurt, Austria. They are the ruling pair of beach volleyball. Thirdly, Xue and Zhang of China also won gold medal in Moscow, Russia and at the Grand Slam presented by Seat. Austrian Hansel and Montagnolli was the only pair without gold in their previous game. However, they finished third in World Series 13 in France.
The defending champions of the Mazury Orlen were expected to move on into the higher levels of the game. The Brazilian invincible duo, Juliana/Larissa Franca always stayed ahead of the game and never failed to impress by their superb hitting and digging in the game of beach volleyball. They have been staying in the winners’ squad for quite long and the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam proved to be another opportunity for them to catch the news flash. They pulled out their SWATCH FIVB World Tour winning line to 27-straight matches in the last tournament. The top-seeded Juliana/Larissa eliminated the Swiss and Russian teams at the quarter-finals and paved their way to the semi-final match. It was their eighth successive semi-final in the 2010. The partnership between Juliana and Larissa was developed in the year 2004 and since then they have been making to the finals for most of times. It was their 68th appearance in the SWATCH FIVB semi-finals so far.
Juliana/Larissa thrashed 28th-seeded Ekaterina Khomyakova and Anastasia Vasina of Russia after placing 23-25, 21-12 and 15-11 win. Earlier in the day, they battled with 12th-seeded Swiss pair and won the match 17-21, 21-19, and15-9. The Swiss Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr were eliminated after receiving a fine overthrow from Brazilian top-pair.
Other than Juliana/Larissa, the Austrian Hansel and Montagnolli claimed victory over teams from Georgia and United States and also defeated a pair from Austria in quarter final matches to qualify for the semi-finals. Likewise, the Chinese pair, who won the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, eliminated teams from Germany and Austria and obtained their 22nd SWATCH semi-final berth this year.
In the last quarter final match on Friday, Antonelli and Talita of Brazil ousted 22nd-seeded Nvstrom sisters (Emilia and Erika) of Finland. They successfully posted a victory of 19-21, 21-13, and 15-8 and secured their place in the semi-finals.
Further, in the semi-final, they played the 7th-seeded Austrian pair, Barbara Hansel and Sara Montagnolli who couldn’t stand the powerful spikes of Juliana and Larissa either. The second semi-final also created a lot of buzz, in which the Chinese Chen Xue and Xi Zhang crashed the rising beach volleyball players from Brazil, Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes.
The semi-finals on Saturday concluded two best teams for the final of the SWATCH FIVB Grand Slam Tournament 2010 and reached its end on Saturday. It was the last Grand Slam Tournament on the SWATCH FIVB Calender.
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