Americans and Chinese to fight it out
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World No 36 Emily Day and Summer Ross of the US and Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi of China will battle it out for the crown in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Phuket Thailand Open at the Karon Beach after overcoming strong challenges from their rivals in the semi-fina
Day and Ross scored a dramatic 21-19 20-22 15-12 win over Brazil’s world No 5 pair of Agatha Bednarczuk and Maria Antonelli. The victory meant that a team from the US has entered the final for the seventh consecutive time in the Thailand Open.
Last year, American veterans Jennifer Kessy and April Ross were victorious in the 2012 Bangsaen Thailand Open.
In today’s final clash, Day and Ross will take on world No 124 Xue and Xia. The Chinese pair pulled off a stunning victory over world No 3 Maria Clara and Carolina Salgado of Brazil 21-16 17-21 20-18.
Earlier in the quarter-finals, contested in scorching heat, Day and Ross battled hard to defeat the Dutch pair of Rimke Braakman and Jantine van der Vlist 18-21 21-19 15-8.
Braakman and Van der Vlist had entered the last eight after powering past top qualifiers Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider of Germany in the second round knock out match. It was the career best performance in Phuket by the Dutch pair.
The other quarter-final matches saw Bednarczuk and Antonelli outclass Argentina’s Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug 21-14 21-19, Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi took the first set 21-17 win over Yue Yuan and Ma Yuanyuan in an all-Chinese clash. Yue and Ma refused to continue the second set, giving the Xue and Xia tandem a comfortable win over their compatriots.
The clash between fourth seeded Salgado sisters, Maria Clara and Carolina Solberg, and Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova, who partnered Ekaterina Khomyakova to win the FIVB Anapa Open at home in July, and Maria Prokopeva, had attracted much attention.
A large number of Russian fans filled the grandstands to give a morale boost their players. However, the high-profile Brazilians, gold medallists at this year’s Moscow Grand Slam, were as cool as cucumber in the searing sun.
The Brazilians silenced the crowds with their splendid combination, magnificently coming from behind to beat the Russians in a three-set thriller 17-21 21-13 15-13 in 63 gruelling minutes.
Today, the third place play-off takes place at 3.35pm, followed by the final clash. NBT and two satellite channels, T Sports and SMM TV, will televise both matches live from Karon Beach.
