Maceió, Brazil, February 26, 2016 - Stop the presses!
With writers on deadline, Karla Borger and Britta Buthe forced the rewrite of the lead paragraph and headline noting that three German teams had advanced to the women’s quarter-finals of US$150,000 Maceió Open after the European pair’s upset win over Brazilian Olympians Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca before a capacity crowd here Friday evening on the on the Pajuçara center court in front of the Hotel Enseada.
With their 2-1 (23-21, 15-21, 15-11) win in 49 minutes over second-seeded Talita and Larissa, the seventh-seeded Borger and Buthe evened the FIVB World Tour series between the two teams at 1-1 as the Germans were playing in their first international event since July 25. Earlier Friday, Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst and Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler secured quarter-final berths in the third women’s FIVB World Tour stop on the 2015-2016 calendar.
“This is especially pleasing since I have not played in a tournament since I injured my back last July at the European Championships,” said the 27-year old Borger, who had surgery in mid-August. “I don’t know if this is the biggest win for us, but I know it is very satisfying since we defeated a great team on their home sand.”
Borger, who is playing in her 52nd FIVB World Tour event with Buthe with a gold medal finish last May in the Swiss Open in Lucerne, injured her back initially at the Yokohama Grand Slam in Japan a week before the European finals. “I thought I could make it through the rest of the season, but it got worst in Klagenfurt,” she noted.
After the surgery, Borger went directly into rehab and started practicing again in November with training sessions in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. “So far, so good with the back,” said Borger.
Borger, Buthe and the two other German pairs will now compete with two pairs from Brazil along with tandems from Argentina, Italy and the Netherlands for the Maceió Open gold medal where the “final four” matches for both men and women will be played Sunday. The winning teams will share the $11,000 first-place prizes.
Top-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, who finished atop of the FIVB World Tour points standings last season, and 22nd-qualifier Eduarda (Duda) Lisboa and Elize Maia will be the host country teams in the quarter-finals. Other teams are 14th-seeded Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug of Argentina, 10th-seeded Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth of Italy and fifth-seeded Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands.
The top-half of the Maceió Open bracket has Borger/Buthe playing Gallay/Klug with Duda/Elize Maia challenging Menegatti/Orsi Toth. On the bottom side of the quarter-final pairs, the third-seeded Ludwig/Walkenhorst play fifth-seeded Meppelink/Van Iersel with Agatha/Barbara being challenged by 12th-seeded Holtwick/Semmler.
Menegatti/Orsi Toth, who had to play two matches Friday, shocked the Maceió Open crowd by upsetting fourth-seeded Juliana Felisberta/Taiana Lima of Brazil 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) in 43 minutes. Menegatti and Orsi Toth, who won the Sochi Open last September, have the experience advantage with 30 FIVB World Tour events to their credit with five podium placements and eight “final four” appearances.
Like the Italians and Borger/Buthe, Gallay and Klug eliminated a highly-regarded host country team as the Argentineans ousted ninth-seeded Maria Antonelli/Liliane Maestrini 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-9) in 51 minutes. The Juliana/Lima and Antonelli/Lili tandems were playing in their first-ever FIVB World Tour event together. Juliana and Antonelli had played together the last two seasons and were the top team on the 2014 FIVB World Tour’s points list.
Duda, who is only 17 with two FIVB youth world championships to her credit along with a gold medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, and Elize Maia advanced to their fourth FIVB World Tour quarter-final in five international starts together with a 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) victory in 32 minutes over 30th-seeded compatriots Angela Lavalle and Rachel Nunes. It was Duda and Elize Maia’s fifth victory of the competition as they started play Tuesday in the 30-team women’s qualifier.
Ludwig and Walkenhorst’s match with Meppelink and Van Iersel will pit two of the more experienced teams on the FIVB World Tour. It will be the fifth meeting between the two teams on the FIVB circuit with the Dutch women holding a 3-2 edge in the international series.
Top-seeded Agatha and Barbara, who survived a three-set upset bid Friday by 20th-seeded Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova of Russia, will play the 12th-seeded Holtwick/Semmler. Agatha and Barbara have won the last two meetings with the Germans to have a 3-2 edge in the FIVB World Tour meetings.