Berlin, Germany, June 20, 2014 – Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas De Freitas knocked out European champions Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel with a 2-0 (21-16, 23-21) win in the second elimination round of the FIVB Beach Volley World Tour Berlin smart Grand Slam.
The 6th seeded Brazilians had defeated Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) earlier on Friday, while the Dutch team, as pool winners, had a bye in the first round.
After winning the first set easily, it looked like Agatha and Seixas were going to lose the second set, when they were trailing five points at 19-14.
But the Brazilian team changed tactics, put pressure on Van Iersel instead of Meppelink and scored seven points in a row to have their first match point at 20-19. The Dutch were able to come back, had a set point at 21-20, but it was Brazil who scored the winning point at 22-21.
“It was incredible!”, said Seixas. “I think we happened to make the right decisions at the right moment. Sometimes you have to take a risk to make it work. We decided to do something different that we agreed upon before the match. And it worked, so I am happy.”
Agatha and Seixas teamed up in 2012 and won the Bangsaen Open, but played with different partners last year. This season they are back together, winning bronze in Shanghai and gold in Puerto Vallarta.
Asked about their recent success, Seixas said. “We always do our best. We are always very positive about things, about our team. We try always to focus on the match we have to play, we don’t think about tomorrow, don’t think about the past. We only think about what we need to do now.”
“This way we can be free from all the worries and concerns about our mistakes and focus only on the positive things that we can do and have control over.”
Borger/Büthe still on track
Brazil’s opponents in the quarterfinal on Saturday, vice-world champions Karla Borger and Britta Büthe, stayed on track for a German podium place. After a bye in the first round the German team booked a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) over Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré from Switzerland.
“We fought our way through the match and made the right decisions at the deciding moments”, said Büthe. “Now we move into a phase where it’s do or die. There are some big challenges ahead, which we will face with aggression and team spirit.”
“This was a very straining match, but our coach prepared us well for the Swiss girls”, said Borger. “Our tactic was the key to success and the audience was behind us all the way. Although we are not from Berlin, we feel like we are now.”
Other quarterfinals
Another interesting quarterfinal will be the match between USA’s April Ross and Kerri Walsh and Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Juliana Felisberta da Silva. It will be a rematch of the Fuzhou Open final, where the Americans took the gold.
The other two quarterfinals will feature Brazil’s Talita/Lima vs. Kolocova/Slukova from the Czech Republic, and China’s Wang Fan/Yue Y. (CHN) vs. Bawden/Clancy from Australia.
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