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19/03/2016

ABUG in the works at women’s Vitória Open

Vitória, Brazil, March 19, 2016 - Australia, Brazil, USA and Germany will compete for the medals at this week’s $150,000 Vitória Open as the 17th-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler broke through the seeding to advance to their first semifinal this season.

Playing on an outside court on Camburi beach here Saturday morning, German Olympians Holtwick and Semmler advanced to their 20th FIVB World Tour final four since forming their partnership in 2006 as the Vitória Open is their 104th event on the international circuit.

Quick links
•    Vitória Open website
•    Qualification - Men
•    Qualification - Women
•    Main draw - Men
•    Main draw - Women

With a 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-8) quarterfinal win in 42 minutes over 13th-seeded Joana Heidrich and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland, Holtwick and Semmler will play American Olympic medallists April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings in the first of four women’s and men’s semifinals Saturday evening on the Camburi beach center court.

OTHER SEMIFINAL

The other women’s semifinal will pit top-seeded Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca of Brazil against fourth-seeded Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy of Australia after the two teams eliminated German pairs with two-set wins in the quarterfinals Saturday morning.

“Our service game was the difference in the final two sets against the Swiss,” said Semmler, who has teamed with Holtwick to play in two other semifinals since April 2015. “All our matches with Joana and Nadine have been competitive. Now we are in the finals with three of the best teams in the world starting with Kerri and April. I am glad we have time to rest before playing the Americans.”

Holtwick and Semmler, who have won six of the eight FIVB World Tour matches with the Swiss, will be playing Ross and Walsh Jennings for only the second time internationally with the Germans posting a 2-1 (13-21, 21-18, 15-12) victory in 50 minutes over the Americans in a second round elimination match at The Hague Grand Slam in July 2014.

AMERICANS ADVANCE

Seeded second in the competition, Ross and Walsh Jennings advanced to their 11th FIVB World Tour semifinal in 22 international events with a 2-1 (16-21, 21-18, 15-11) win in 53 minutes over 10th-seeded Antonelli/Lili Maestrini of Brazil. Ross and Walsh Jennings will be seeking their second-straight FIVB gold medal after winning last Sunday’s finale at the Rio Grand Slam on Copacabana.

In the other two quarterfinal matches Saturday morning, Talita and Larissa eliminated 22nd-seeded Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude of Germany 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) in 37 minutes while Bawden and Clancy posted a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) win in 32 minutes over fifth-seeded Karla Borger/Britta Büthe of Germany.

BRAZILIANS LEAD SERIES WITH AUSSIES 2-0

Larissa and Talita will be playing in their 12th final four on the FIVB circuit with the Brazilians a perfect 11-0 in semifinal and gold medal matches. Bawden and Clancy, who are 0-2 against Talita and Larissa, have reached the semifinals for the third time in 33 FIVB World Tour events.

With the men’s semifinals also being played ob Saturday, the medal matches for both genders will be staged Sunday where the winning pairs will split the $11,000 first-place prize. The Vitória Open is the fifth women’s and seventh men’s event on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar.

BRAZILIAN JOURNEY

The early season FIVB World Tour swing through Brazil concludes with the Vitória Open after previous stops in Maceio (February 23-28) and on iconic Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro (March 8-13). Following the Vitória Open, the FIVB World Tour will take a two-week break before resuming action for the April 4-8 men’s-only event in Doha, Qatar. Before returning to Brazil for the Fortaleza Open at the end of April, two double-gender events will be staged in China at Xiamen (April 12-17) and Fuzhou (April 19-24).

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