Brazil, Canada and Latvia in Gstaad’s semis

Two teams from Brazil will be joined by duos from Canada and Latvia in the semifinals of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star event in Gstaad, the last 4-star event before the Tokyo Olympics, on Sunday.

FIVB World Ranking leaders Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa will play against second-placed Canadians and reigning world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes in one of the semifinals while the other will reunite Ana Patricia Ramos/Rebecca Cavalcanti and Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Kravcenoka.

The winners of the second event of the Cancun Hub back in April, Agatha and Duda were the only semifinalists to need three sets to make it through the quarterfinals. They played Swiss Nina Betschart and Tanja Huberli on Gstaad’s centre court and pulled out a 21-18, 18-21, 15-13 victory to reach the semifinals for the fifth time in seven World Tour events played in 2021.

Pavan and Humana-Paredes, who won the tournament in the Swiss Alps back in 2018, eliminated another Brazilian team on their way to the semifinals as they knocked out veteran qualifiers Carolina Salgado and Barbara Seixas in two close sets (25-23, 25-23). They will also compete in their fifth semifinal in 2021.

The teams have met 11 times in international competition since 2017 and the Brazilians have a narrow 6-5 lead. The Canadians, however, have prevailed four out of five times when these matches happened in the semifinal round of a tournament.

Ana Patricia and Rebecca, who missed the last three events before Gstaad, continued their successful campaign in the Swiss Alps with their fourth win in five matches. The Brazilians were dominant against Canadians Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson and secured a 2-0 (21-18, 21-9) win to make it to the semifinals.

“It’s been really special to play in Gstaad again and feel that amazing energy on centre court,” Ana Patricia explained. “It’s a tournament we all love and this time it’s been even more special because it’s the first event we played this year in front of fans.”

Graudina and Kravcenoka remain undefeated with five wins in Gstaad. In Saturday’s quarterfinals, they had a rematch of the 2019 European Championship final against Poland’s Kinga Wojtasik and Katarzyna Kociolek and won again, this time 2-0 (21-13, 21-13).

“We felt the electricity from the first minute,” Kracenoka said about their first match on centre court. “It was fantastic to play in front of the spectators and I’m glad we had a very good performance.”

The two teams are part of the same pool at the Tokyo Olympics and will soon play each other again in Japan. Their only World Tour meeting dates back to 2018 and the Brazilians came out on top of with a 2-0 win in Yangzhou, China.

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Gstaad
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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