Chetumal, Mexico, October 26, 2018 – Revenge is set for the quarterfinals of the Chetumal Open as Brazil’s Tainá Bigi/Victoria Lopes and Canada’s Megan McNamara/Nicole McNamara will clash for the second time in just ten days in an elimination match on Saturday at the Mexican coastal city.
Brazilians and Canadians faced each other last week in the qualification tournament the World Tour event in Las Vegas and Tainá and Victoria came out on top, preventing the 21-year-old twins from making their first appearance in a four-star tournament.
“Perhaps it’s faith or just a chance for revenge,” Nicole commented. “We had a disappointing finish last week and we really wanted to come here and redeem ourselves, so it’s great to be in the quarterfinals.”
As they both had topped their pools on Thursday, the Brazilians and the Canadians played just one match on Friday on their way to the quarterfinals, in the Round of 16. The 23-year-old Tainá and the 19-year-old Victoria posted a 21-16, 21-16 victory over the Netherlands’ Jolien Sinnema and Laura Bloem to advance to their first quarterfinal appearance in a four-star event.
“We had two tough tournaments in China and Las Vegas where we didn’t get out of the pool, so to get to the quarterfinals here is amazing, but we want more,” Tainá said. “The Dutch are very talented, but the fact that we played so many great teams this season helps us a lot when we need to play matches like this. We were trailing in the second set, but we figured that if we managed to serve better we could turn things around and that’s what happened.”
The Canadians, who played in their first quarterfinal in a three-star tournament in Tokyo, back in July, also needed only two sets (21-13, 21-18) to take down Japan’s Yukako Suzuki and Kaho Sakaguchi at the center court.
“They started getting a better read on us in the second set and were getting more digs,” Megan explained. “We just tried to change the way we were playing to finish rallies faster because they’re a really good team, they’re scrappy. We just came back to serving tough and playing our game and it paid off.”
A packed center court in Chetumal for the Round of 16's night session
Six other teams from five different countries also advanced to the quarterfinals, which will have the following matchups on Saturday: USA’s Caitlin Ledoux/Geena Urango x Mexico’s Zaira Orellana/Martha Revuelta, Brazil’s Maria Clara Salgado/Elize Maia Secomandi x USA’s Kerri Walsh Jennings/Brooke Sweat and Canada’s Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson x Russia’s Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina.
Semifinals are also scheduled for Saturday while the medal matches will end the tournament at the Mexican town on Sunday.