Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2015 - The second-half of the semi-final program for the Moscow Grand Slam was set here Saturday morning with women’s Beach Volleyball pairs from China and Brazil completing the “final four” field for the first “big” event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour calendar.
With heavy rains and thunderstorms postponing the final two quarter-final matches Friday evening to Saturday morning, the team of top-seeded Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca of Brazil and 10th-seeded Fan Wang/Yuan Yue of China will meet in the second semi-final match in the afternoon at the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Center courts.
Playing side-by-side on two outside courts, Wang and Yue defeated 30th-seeded Carolina Horta and Liliane Maestrini of Brazil 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) in 35 minutes while Talita and Larissa scored a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) win in 34 minutes over ninth-seeded Elsa Baquerizo and Liliana Fernandez of Spain.
Netting semi-final berths Friday before the rain and thunder were seventh-seeded Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands and 13th-seeded Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth of Italy. The two teams will meet in Saturday’s first semi-final match.
With a quarter-final match between Wang/Yue and 30th-seeded Carolina Horta/Liliane Maestrini of Brazil still to be played Friday, Talita and Larissa’s quarter-final match with ninth-seeded Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez of Spain was stopped after a 35-minute delay due to heavy thunderstorms in the area by FIVB Technical Supervisor Levan Akhvlediani.
Baquerizo and Liliana won the first set 21-17 in 17 minutes after breaking from a 7-7 tie to lead 12-9, 16-12 and 19-16 in the persistent rain on the center court. Brazil led 7-4 in the second set when the match was stopped after seven minutes of play. Thirty-five minutes later, the match was “officially” cancelled and rescheduled to start from the beginning at 10:30 a.m. (local time) Saturday on the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Center courts.
Before the “heavy” rains with thunderstorms came, the Italians and Dutch posted quarter-final victories over pairs from the Slovak Republic and the United States, respectively. Menegatti and Orsi Toth scored a 2-0 (26-24, 26-24) win in 52 minutes over 16th-seeded Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova of the Slovak Republic while Meppelink and Van Iersel eliminated 22nd-seeded Emily Day and Jennifer Kessy of the United States 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) in 47 minutes.
The first “big” event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour, the US$800,000 Moscow Grand Slam continues through Sunday when the medal matches for both men and women will be played. The men played two elimination rounds Friday and will set the medal matches by playing quarter- and semi-final matches Saturday.
After this week’s event, the FIVB World Tour’s first “Major Series” stops are set for Croatia (Poreč, June 1-7) and Norway (Stavanger, June 8-14) before international circuit crosses the Atlantic for the final world championship “tune up” in the United States for the St. Petersburg Grand Slam in Florida (June 15-21).