Talita wins 35th World Tour title with Taiana

Talita Antunes’ long and storied FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour career has had another memorable moment on Tuesday as the 38-year-old Brazilian won the first of the three 4-star events at the Cancun Hub with partner Taiana Lima and secured her 35th international title.

The two, who are reunited for the three events in Mexico because Talita’s regular partner Maria Elisa Antonelli is working on her fitness in Brazil, ended a sensational four-day run at the Playa Delfines in perhaps even more spectacular fashion as they upset reigning world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada 2-1 (19-21, 24-22, 15-10) to claim the title.

“We have such great chemistry that’s even difficult to explain,” Taiana said. “I’m so proud of our trajectory here. We finished the tournament without losing a single match and played some of the best teams in the world in the Canadians and the two Brazilian teams that are going to the Olympics. We’re really happy and will celebrate a bit, but not for too long because there’s a new tournament starting in just a few days.”

A World Tour regular since 2005, Talita has appeared in 178 international events in her career and has won gold medals in 13 different seasons with four distinct partners. A three-time Olympian, the blocker has collected 16 golds with Larissa Franca, eight with Antonelli, six with Taiana and five with Renata Ribeiro.

She now surpassed legendary Brazilian Shelda Bede and ranks fifth in World Tour victories among the women behind Larissa (62), USA’s Kerri Walsh Jennings (56), Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta (49) and USA’s Misty May-Treanor (43).

“I’m still in love with all this,” she reflected. “I’m still very passionate every time I step on the court. I remember my first World Tour victory and I honestly feel like I’m the same. This final wasn’t easy, they improved a lot since I last played them in 2017 and are the best team in the world. Taiana was amazing, she ran the entire court and served really well. With the wind, you need to be focused the entire time and that’s what we did.”  

Brazil claimed yet another medal in the tournament as Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Agatha Bednarczuk and World Tour’s 2018 and 2019 Most Outstanding Player Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa prevailed against in a long match against Germans Chantal Laboureur and Cinja Tillman to win 2-0 (37-35, 21-16) and step on the podium.

“It was a very hard game,” Duda commented. “It’s very warm here but Agatha and I stuck together and played as a team. We played strong all match and I’m glad we managed to win. It was difficult because the Germans are originally both defenders so we had to adjust to that and also to the soft sand and the wind here.”

As with the Canadians, who took silver at the 4-star Katara Cup in Doha last month, the Brazilians have also stepped on the podium in consecutive international tournaments as they took bronze in Qatar as well. Their great run of form, however, dates back to the start of the 2020-2021 Brazilian Tour, in September, as they took the season title after winning six of the season’s eight events, including five consecutively.

“It’s awesome to have such a great start,” Agatha added. “It’s our second consecutive medal at the international level this year but we’ve been really consistent in Brazil too as we won medals in each of the eight events we played at. Every time we go to a tournament we want to be on the podium, that’s our focus, and we want to make the most of every opportunity we have to play at before Tokyo.”

Go to:
Cancun Hub - 1st event
Cancun Hub - 1st event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women

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