After three consecutive frustrated attempts, the Austrian Klinger sisters Dorina and Ronja will play in the semifinals of a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite event for the first time on Sunday, in Ostrava.

The Europeans advanced to the Final Four of the tournament held at the iconic Lower Vítkovice industrial heritage site in Czechia on Saturday and will meet Brazilians Thamela Coradelo and Victoria Lopes for a spot in the final – Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova and Switzerland’s Anouk Vergé-Dépré/Zoé Vegé-Dépré will duel in the other semifinal.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite live on VBTV

Scheduled for 8:30 and 9:30 local time (6:30 and 7:30 GMT), the women’s semifinals will open the last day of matches in Ostrava. The bronze medal match will start at 13:00 (11:00 GMT), with the dispute for gold following two hours later.

Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite – Match Schedule and Results

Partners since 2018, Dorina, 27, and Ronja, 25, were yet to make their first semifinal appearance in a Beach Pro Tour Elite event entering the Ostrava tournament, but, going through an excellent run of form that took them to fourth place in the FIVB World Ranking, they were as close as it gets to it lately, having stopped in the quarterfinals in the last three events they played.

The Austrians started their campaign in Czechia in a strong way, getting a pair of sweeps in pool play, but fell to their semifinal opponents Thamela and Victoria in the tie-breaker (18-21, 21-14, 15-12) in the Round of 12 earlier on Saturday. Despite the setback, the Austrians still advanced to the quarterfinals as one of the two best losing teams and they made the most of the opportunity to continue alive in the tournament by beating Americans Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft in straight sets (21-19, 21-18) to book their tickets to the semifinals.

The FIVB World Ranking leaders, their opponents Thamela and Victoria had a perfect day in Ostrava on Saturday, beating the Klingers in the Round of 12 and then sweeping (21-19, 23-21) Americans Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw to make it to the semifinals for the fifth time in eight Beach Pro Tour events as partners.

Anouk and Zoé to make first semifinal appearance too

The other side of the bracket will also have a team making its first appearance in the semifinals of a Beach Pro Tour Elite event. Playing together for just the fourth time after becoming partners at the start of the season, the Swiss Vergé-Dépré sisters will be in the medal rounds for the first time on Sunday in Ostrava.

Fresh from winning silver in a Futures event in Spiez last weekend, the Olympians had to fight hard, but won a pair of three-setters on Saturday, knocking Ukrainians sensations Anhelina Khmil and Valentyna Davidova down in the Round of 12 with a 2-1 (21-16, 14-21, 15-12) victory and beating Italians Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth also in three sets (21-16, 17-21, 15-9) in the quarterfinals to move forward.

Two-time Olympians Tina and Anastasija will appear in the semifinals for the first time this season. Like the Klingers, the Latvians dropped their first match of the day on Saturday, losing to Cheng and Shaw in straight sets (21-11, 21-19) in the Round of 12, but they still advanced, and rebounded a few hours later, eliminating Paris Olympic silver medalists Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada in two sets (28-26, 21-12).

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