BPT Finals - Doha, QAT - 2024

Latvians and Chinese join Americans in the Final Four in Doha

Tina/Anastasija vs. Cannon/Kraft and Xue/Xia vs. Kloth/Nuss are the semifinal duels of the season-ending event

Published 06:38, 06 Dec 2024

Tina/Anastasija (LAT) vs. Stam/Schoon (NED) - Quarterfinals #27398517

Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova won two matches on Friday in Doha

Opponents in the gold medal match of the Stare Jablonki Challenge six months ago, Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova and China’s Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia secured the last two spots in the semifinals of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha on Friday and will both meet American duos for a place in the tournament’s gold medal match.

The duels will both happen on Saturday, with Tina and Anastasija battling Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft at 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT) and Xue and Xia facing Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss one hour later. The medal matches will also be held on Saturday.

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Latvians and Chinese met at the start of the third day of action in Doha on Friday, with Tina and Anastasija recovering from back-to-back losses to get a much-needed Pool A victory over Xue and Xia, beating the Asians 2-1 (21-17, 14-21, 15-12). Later, they followed it up with another tie-breaker, beating Dutch Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-13) in the quarterfinals.

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Their semifinal opponents, Cannon and Kraft are the only undefeated team in the women’s tournament in Qatar. The winners of Pool A with four victories and just one set lost, they advanced directly from pool play to the semifinals following their 2-0 (21-10, 21-15) victory over Italians Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth.

Latvians and Americans met on Wednesday in Doha and Cannon and Kraft won in straight sets to even the head-to-head results between the teams, which now shows two triumphs for each side.

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Müller/Tillmann (GER) vs. Xue/X. Y. Xia (CHN) - Quarterfinals #27406359

Olympic medalist Xue sets during the quarterfinal round in Qatar

Despite their pool play defeat to the Latvians, Xue and Xia advanced to the elimination rounds in second place. They also had to play in the quarterfinals, where they downed reigning European champions Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann of Germany 2-1 (21-16, 16-21, 15-11) to move forward.

Reigning Beach Pro Tour Finals champions Kloth and Nuss topped Pool B with three wins and one loss, earning a direct spot in the semifinals. On Friday, they faced their only defeat so far in Doha, falling to Müller and Tillmann 2-1 (23-25, 22-20, 15-8).

On Saturday, Chinese and Americans will meet for the fourth time in just over a year. Kloth and Nuss won the last two duels, including the one in the pool phase of the Paris 2024 Olympics.