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Beach volleyball 24/08/2013

Brazil’s Salgado-sisters eye gold and a fur hat

Moscow, Russia, August 24, 2013 – Brazil’s Maria
Clara and Carolina Salgado reached the final four for the 5th time this year
after a shaky start at the Moscow Grand Slam. In the semifinal on Sunday they
will play Spain’s Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo McMillan.

After their 2-1 (21-18 18-21 15-10) win in the quarterfinal against Australia’s
Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy, Maria Clara said that they were not only
eying a gold medal after two silvers and two bronzes this season, but she
really wanted to win the fur hat the winners always get in Moscow.

“We really wanted to do a good tournament in Russia, to do a semifinal here
because I want a Russian cap”, she joked. “No, that is just one of the reasons.
We want more, we already have the silver and bronze and now we want gold.”

The Salgado-sisters barely made it out of the pool on Friday with only one win
and one point more than the number four. “We did not have a good start, we
played really bad the first day against Russia and Kazakhstan. But I think we
grew up during the tournament.”

“I think it’s the end of the season. And Carolina did not sleep till 5 am
because of jet lag. Like three days straight, she slept at 3 am, 5 am. But it
is no excuse for what we did on the first day, that was a really bad day. It
was amazing that we got another chance.”

On Saturday they booked 2-0 wins over Swiss team Isabel Forrer and Anouk
Vergé-Dépré and Germany’s Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler, but they had a
tough match against Bawden and Clancy.

“This was a hard one, the Australians really played well. They are a great
team, really tall team. It’s difficult sometimes when we don’t get the block
and their service is really good.”

“I think it was our hardest match today. The only match that was 2-1 and they
did not play the second match against Lili and Barbara (forfeit). For sure they
were a bit less tired.”

Ludwig and Walkenhorst thank the rain gods

In the other semifinal Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, bronze
medallists at the European Championships, play Italy’s Marta Menegatti and
Viktoria Orsi Toth.

Ludwig and Walkenhorst had a narrow escape in their second elimination match
against Austria’s Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger, which was interrupted for over
an hour because of thunderstorms.

“We were almost out, we kind of lost already”, Ludwig said. “We were one set
behind and 17-12 behind in the second and then the rain god came and we had a
break and we came back after that break, I still don’t know how.”

“After that we said we got a chance and we took it in the third game. We played
really good and were focussed until the end”, Ludwig said after their 2-0
(21-16 21-16) win over Russia’s Ekaterina Syrtseva and Alexandra Shiryaeva in
the quarterfinal.

Ludwig and Walkenhorst teamed up at the beginning of this year and reached
their second World Tour semifinal, after finishing 4th in Gstaad. Their
opponents in the semifinal, Menegatti and Orsi Toth, had an impressive run on
Saturday, defeating Brazil’s World Tour leaders Lima and Antunes and Agatha and
Antonelli.

“We played against them in the pool and there is a rule actually that you never
win twice”, Ludwig said. “But we are going to change this rule. If we play at
our best I know we can win.”

“Italy is a new team but they play better and better each game so I think the
semi is going to be really good tomorrow, a good fight.”

FIVB
Moscow Grand Slam Tournament Page

FIVB
Moscow Grand Slam Men’s Main Draw

FIVB
Moscow Grand Slam Women’s Main Draw

FIVB Moscow Grand Slam Twitter Account

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