FIVB官方文章
USA On Track To Repeat Olympic Triumph At Infote Athens Open
美国在INFOTE雅典公开赛重复奥运会获胜的轨迹在前进[/COLOR]
Kerri Walsh of the USA in quarter-final action at the Infote Athens Open
Athens, Greece, 2 June, 2006 C Top-seeded Kerri Walsh and Misty May are on track to a repeat of their 2004 triumph. In the same stadium where they won their Athens Olympics gold medal, the reigning world champions remain undefeated after two days of play in the Infote Athens Open of the 2006 Swatch-FIVB World Tour. The Americans overcame any obstacle that came their way and scored successive victories here on Friday, over Greece’s Thalia Koutroumanidou / Maria Tsiartsiani and Brazil’s Adriana Behar / Shelda, both in straight sets, to enter the semi-finals.
But second-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa França of Brazil are also undefeated and through to Saturday’s semis, set to repeat their upset victory over the Americans in the final of the season’s opener, in Modena. Juliana / Larissa overcame their fellow-Brazilians, Carolina and Maria Clara Salgado sisters, and the USA’s Rachel Wacholder / Elaine Youngs.
Still alive in the competition, but playing in the losers’ bracket for the two remaining berths in the semi-finals, two teams each from China and Brazil and one each from the USA and the Netherlands. The hosts have been left without representation in the final two days of the competition, following successive defeats, Friday, of Koutroumanidou and Tsiartsiani.
Amongst the hopefuls for a semi-final berth are Brazil’s Renata Ribeiro and Talita Antunes, last year’s Infote Athens Open winners. Despite playing in the losers’ bracket since their defeat in Round I to China’s Ji Linjun / Wang Lu, Renata and Talita thrashed anything that came their way, Friday, posting straight-set victories over Greece’s Vasso Karadassiou / Vicky Arvaniti, China’s Zhang Ying / Zuo Man, and Australia’s Natalie Cook / Nicole Sanderson. On the way, the Brazilians won sets with 21-4 and with 21-7.
Last weekend’s winners of the Shanghai Open, Zhang Xi and Xue Chen of China managed no better than 13th this week, after they were eliminated by their fellow-Chinese, Ji Linjun / Wang Lu, who came in through the Qualification Tournament and remain alive and in contention.
The Infote Athens Open continues Saturday, with afternoon and evening matches at the Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre of the Greek capital. Losers bracket matches begin at 16:00 local time (13:00 GMT), with the semi-finals scheduled to be played under floodlights on Centre Court from 21:00 local time (18:00 GMT).
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