Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2008-06-13

(BEIJING,June 13) –With four of the top eight-seeded teams playing in the first-round of the women’s elimination bracket at the US$600,000 smart Grand Slam here Thursday afternoon, each advanced to Friday’s schedule in the first of six SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam events.

Posting elimination wins after being upset during pool play were second-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca of Brazil, third-seeded Nicole Branagh/Elaine Youngs of the United States along with the Chinese tandems of sixth-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang and seventh-seeded Jia Tian/Jie Wang.

Of the four, Juliana/Larissa and Xue/Zhang will face the toughest second-round matches Friday against fifth-seeded Talita Antunes/Renata Ribeiro of Brazil and top-seeded Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh of the United States, respectively. Talita/Renata (Pool E) and May-Treanor/Walsh (Pool A) earned “byes” in the 24-team smart Grand Slam single-elimination bracket by winning their pools with 3-0 records.

Juliana/Larissa and Tian/Wang posted wins Thursday afternoon with six other teams to advance to Friday’s schedule that will feature quarter-final matches in the afternoon to determine the participants for Saturday’s semi-final and medal matches. The smart Grand Slam gold medal team will share the $43,500 first-place prize.

While May-Treanor and Walsh hold a 5-1 edge in the SWATCH series with Xue and Zhang, Juliana and Larissa have played Talita and Renata 28 times on the FIVB tour with 23 wins. For the 2008 season, Juliana and Larissa have a 4-2 edge with each team winning a gold medal match. After Juliana and Larissa won the season opening title in Australia, Talita and Renata avenged the gold medal setback to their Brazilian rivals five weeks later at the start of May in Shanghai.

Other teams netting “byes” after the conclusion of pool play were fourth-seeded Ana Paula Connelly/Shelda Bede of Brazil (Pool D), seventh-seeded Jen Boss/April Ross of the United States (Pool H), 11th-seeded Vasso Karadassiou/Vassiliki Arvaniti of Greece (Pool F), 11th-seeded Stephanie Pohl/Okka Rau of Germany, 18th-seeded Mayra Garcia/Bibiana Candelas of Mexico (Pool B) and 26th-seeded Maria Antonelli and Vanilda Leão of Brazil (Pool G).

After losing to Karadassiou and Arvaniti Thursday morning, Xue and Zhang rebounded with a 21-14 and 21-12 elimination win in 39 minutes over 23rd-seeded Chiaki Kusuhara and Mika Teru Saiki of Japan. A three-set loser to Garcia and Candelas in Wednesday’s pool play, Juliana and Larissa scored a 21-15, 15-21 and 15-8 win in 51 minutes over 19th-seeded Dalixia Fernandez Grasset and Tamara Larrea Peraza of Cuba.

Other elimination winners were Thursday afternoon were 12th-seeded Tamsin Barnett/Natalie Cook of Australia, 13th-seeded Milagros Crespo/Imara Esteves Ribalta of Cuba, 15th-seeded Helke Claasen/Antje Roder of Germany and the 21st-seeded Schwaiger sisters (Doris and Stefanie) of Austria.

The men’s smart Grand Slam featured 32 of the 48 pool play matches Thursday. Before next week’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam stop in Paris, the men’s semi-final and medal matches will be staged Sunday on the sand courts in front of the German capital’s main train station at the Washingtonplatz.

(Credit: FIVB. Click here for further information.)