The SWATCH FIVB PAF Open Women’s Championship 2010: China’s amazing gold medal victory
Since the start of 2010 season on SWATCH FIVB World Tour, the women side was heavily dominated by a Brazilian pair. The 12th event on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Calendar just reached its end on Saturday, 21st August 2010. Out of 12 championships, Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil topped the ranking with their seven wins in the season 2010. They missed the World Series 13 held in France on account of injury. It provided a fair chance to the other Brazilian pair, Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes to secure the title for Brazil.
In the previous events, two gold medals were captured by American Jen Kessy and April Ross while Chinese Chen Xue and Xi Zhang also carved their names amongst winners by a triumph in the Moscow Grand Slam.
Since then the Chinese pair set a direction for them to make a difference in the game beach-volleyball. They struggled hard and reached to the finals of Mazury Orlen Grand Slam and Otera Open, respectively. Somehow, the top-seeded Juliana/Larissa didn’t let them pick up the final victory. They had to finish in the second place. Xi and Zhang kept on improving their game and were never held back by their defeats.
The exhibition of outstanding performance and their sports spirit put them in the final fight of PAF Open, Meriehamn, Finland. The situation was not different; the same competitors approached the courts. Chen Xue and Xi Zhang faced Brazilian Juliana and Larissa. The battle for supremacy was fought between these two pairs. Juliana/Larissa had better records against up-rising Chinese pair as they had defeated them three times during the streak. It included gold medal wins at Polish Grand Slam in Stare Jablonki (12-21, 21-14 and 15-13) and Otera Open Kristiansand, Norway (21-19, 22-20).
Anyhow, the PAF Open brought different luck for Xue and Zhang. Their game came totally out of the blues and they captured the women’s gold medal at the US$380,000 PAF Open by defeating most favourite Juliana and Larissa.
The first set started off and Juliana/Larissa produced the same electrifying spikes, which destabilised the Chinese pair. Nonetheless, Xue/Zhang tried to fight back and struggled to save points. Their efforts went futile as Juliana/Larissa claimed victory in the first set by posting 21-18. With the first set victory, the assumptions revolved in the air that Juliana/Larissa would extend their winning streak and add another title in their collection.
Who would have thought that luck was favouring the other side?
China’s Xue and Zhang kicked off the second set and seemed pretty confident about their act. They produced perfect jump-serves and hit extra-ordinary spikes. At the same time, they strengthened their defence and barred Juliana/Larissa to score points. It was quite disturbing but Juliana/Larissa couldn’t make a remarkable progress. The third-seeded Xue and Zhang dismissed top-seeded Juliana/Larissa by polling 21-12. The game was levelled and second set’s victory added a thrill in the game. Chen Xue and Xi Zhang amazed the world with an outstanding feed. They kept on hitting un-stoppable spikes and won the third set by a margin of 3 points (15-12).
Xue/Zhang claimed their second title victory at PAF Open and their 6th title together. They shared US$30,000 for the first-place prize while runner-up Brazilian pair shared US$21,000.
It was a great milestone for Xue/Zhang and a big blow for Juliana/Larissa as their 40-match winning streak broke by this particular defeat in the final of PAF Open 2010.
Brazilian Antonelli and Talita clashed with Vivian and Lima for third-place in the tournament. The bronze medal victory was claimed by Antonelli/Talita in two straight sets (21-18 and 21-12). They split US$15,000 for third place finish while US$11,200 was awarded to Vivian/Lima for fourth-place in PAF Open 2010.
Tags: