Next, Thamela & Victoria will lock horns with USA’s Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft in Saturday’s round of 12. The eighth-seeded Americans achieved a narrow 2-0 (21-19, 23-21) win over fifth-seeded Anouk Verge-Depre & Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland in the Pool E final. The Swiss got back on track with a 2-0 (23-21, 21-17) victory over another American team, Julia Donlin & Lexy Denaburg, in the first elimination round.
In the second playoff round, Anouk & Zoe will challenge third-seeded Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia. The Latvians were one of the two teams that lived up to their status as the top-seeded teams in their pools. For the first place in Pool C, they hammered out a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) shutout of Brazil’s Vitoria Rodrigues & Hegeile Almeida. The latter, however, did not get to find their way back and lost to Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte in the first knockout round. The 18th-seeded Lithuanian qualifiers beat them in straight sets, 2-0 (21-16, 21-12).
On Saturday, Paulikiene & Raupelyte will face another Brazilian opponent, the world’s number two team Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti. Seeded 11th in the Joao Pessoa main draw, Carol & Rebecca mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) sweep of the Pool B final against second-seeded American Olympians Kristen Nuss & Taryn Brasher. The US team then knocked out fellow Americans Hailey Harward & Molly Phillips in a 2-0 (22-20, 21-17) round-of-18 game.
