Mangaung, South Africa, December 12, 2014 - Nishibori Takemi was crying her eyes out after she and Sayaka Mizoe reached the semifinals on Friday at the FIVB World Tour Beach Volleyball Mangaung Open.
But they were tears of happiness, Take said after defeating Greece’s Vasiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-8) in the quarterfinals. “I am just so happy, semifinals for the first time!”, she said.
The Japanese girls lost the first set to the hard-hitting Greeks, but then changed their strategy. “We tried to serve with a different speed and focus on our defence”, Take said.
They started with trailing three points in the second, but they kept digging and hustling, got the centre court crowd behind them and levelled at 16-16 for the first time after a service ace from Take. In the end the Japanese took the second set on their first set point.
Take and Mizoe came back from behind again in the tiebreak, levelling at 7-7. Mizoe hit two more aces and Take did her bit by finishing the match serving another ace.
“We turned it around twice”, Mizou said proudly. “We told each other after the first set, we have to have a strong heart and do better in serving and defence and we did.”
Take (33) and Mizoe (24) have been playing together for two years, their best result on the World Tour was 9th at a couple of Open events. Winning silver at the challenger in Pattaya in November gave them a boost, said Mizoe.
“Before this tournament we had the challenger in Pattaya and we made it to the final. That was a good experience for us and gave us confidence. Tomorrow we just want to enjoy playing in a semifinal and do our best.”
In the Mangaung semifinal Take and Mizoe, who defeated the other Japanese pair Kusano/Murakami 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) to reach the quarterfinals, will meet third seeded Ukolova/Prokopeva. The Russians reached the last four with wins over two Germany teams: Ittlinger/Weiland (21-7, 21-16) and Behlen/Culav (21-19, 21-18).
First semifinal for Bonnerova/Hermannova too
Czech pair Martina Bonnerova and Barbora Hermannova made it to their first ever semifinal too in Mangaung with wins over Sweden’s Grawender/Lundqvist (21-19, 21-16) and Austria’s Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig (21-19, 21-18).
“We’re so excited”, Hermannova said. “For the first time we have this big chance and we made it. So this is a very good result for us.”
In their quarterfinal match against Austria the Czechs gave away big leads in both sets. “It was a bit of a nervous performance from our side”, Bonnerova. “Because we wanted so much to win. We were up many points, but we let them come back a few times. It was not a good performance, but anyway we are happy we made it.”
“We made some stupid mistakes”, Hermannova added. “But I don’t remember half of it. They were leading like three points, but then we had some aces. It went up and done.”
The Czech pair finished 5th at the Opens in Anapa, Xiamen and Parana. “This season we have done well in Opens, except for the Prague Open, where we finished 17th, but we just want to improve in Grand Slams”, Bonnerova said.
A new coach is the secret to their recent success, she added. “We have a new coach since September and this is the first tournament he travelled with us. So it’s great for us that we finally have a coach who comes with us to the tournaments.”
On Saturday they will have a tough match against first seeded Americans Lane Carico and Kimberly Dicello, who reached the last four by defeating Finland’s Lahti/Lehtonen (21-11, 21-14) and Italy’s Momoli/Giombini (21-16, 21-17).
“We have to enjoy it”, Hermannova emphasized. “Because this will be our first time. We like this city, the weather has been great and let’s just have fun on the centre court and play the best that we can.”