Always in the medal hunt on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour, China’s Xue/Zhang and Brazil’s Antonelli/Antunes are no strangers to each other. Xue/Zhang have been a team for eight seasons and Antonelli/Antunes for three, but the two teams will be meeting for the 19th time overall and second time in a gold medal match. Xue/Zhang hold an 11-7 edge in the series, but Antonelli/Antunes have won three of the last four meetings, including the last two in the Netherlands and the Netherlands last August.
The Chinese are playing in their 36th final four out of 68 FIVB SWATCH World Tour events together with nine gold medals.
The Brazilians are in their 29th final four out of 42 world tour events with seven gold medals. To earn their spot in the gold medal match, China’s Xue/Zhang survived a thrilling three-set match, outlasting Brazil’s second-seeded reigning FIVB Swatch World Champions Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca, 21-17, 16-21 and 17-15 in 52 minutes.
Brazil’s Antonelli/Antunes had a similiar titanic struggle with Italy’s seventh-seeded Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti, finally winning in three sets, 20-22, 21-18 and 15-11 in 55 minutes.
In the Men’s tournament, Undefeated with two victories each on Thursday heading into Friday’s second day of main draw competition are all five teams from Brazil: second-seeded Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, third-seeded Pedro Cunha/Ricardo Santos, sixth-seeded Marcio Araujo/Pedro Salgado, 16th-seeded Moises Santos/Vitor Felipe and 25th-seeded Evandro Goncalves/Harley Marques.
The other unbeaten teams so far in the double-elimination 32-team main draw are Germany’s seventh-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Spain’s fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera and USA’s fourth-seeded Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena.
Brazil’s Felipe/Santos, playing in their first FIVB SWATCH World Tour event together, started the tournament by winning a country quota match Tuesday and then two qualification tournament matches on Wednesday. They recorded two very impressive wins on Thursday. First, they stopped Switzerland’s 17th-ranked Martin Laciga/Jonas Weingart, 21-17, 21-16 in 40 minutes.
In their afternoon match in front of a very enthusiastic center court crowd, they came from behind to upset USA’s top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, 18-21, 21-18 and 15-9 in 56 minutes. “It has been my dream to play against Dalhausser and Rogers,” said a very happy Felipe, the third-youngest men’s player in this tournament (21 years, one month and nine days) who has already in his career earned two silver medals and a bronze in the FIVB SWATCH Junior World Championships for players under 21 years old. “I used to watch them on TV and was impressed with their game. Both of us, Moises and I, entered to play for fun and give our best effort against them. And it worked. We tried to force the serve to Dalhausser, since the other teams generally go to Rogers. The sun also helped us and it was stressful for the Americans. I am very, very happy. In fact, I can’t believe it.”
| Loser are ranked 7th | |||||||
| 56 | 19-Apr | 09:00 | 1 | Larissa-Juliana BRA [2] | Meppelink-van Gestel NED [31] | 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) | 0:33 |
| 55 | 19-Apr | 09:00 | 2 | Keizer-Van Iersel NED [8] | Goller-Ludwig GER [9] | 0-2 (16-21, 12-21) | 0:30 |
| Loser are ranked 5th | |||||||
| 58 | 19-Apr | 12:00 | 1 | Larissa-Juliana BRA [2] | May-Treanor-Walsh USA [1] | 2-1 (21-13, 24-26, 15-13) | 0:50 |
| 57 | 19-Apr | 12:00 | 2 | Goller-Ludwig GER [9] | Cicolari-Menegatti ITA [7] | 1-2 (21-15, 27-29, 14-16) | 1:06 |
| Semi-finals | |||||||
| 60 | 19-Apr | 16:00 | 1 | Xue-Zhang Xi CHN [3] | Larissa-Juliana BRA [2] | 2-1 (21-17, 16-21, 17-15) | 0:52 |
| 59 | 19-Apr | 15:00 | 1 | Talita-Antonelli BRA [4] | Cicolari-Menegatti ITA [7] | 2-1 (20-22, 21-18, 15-11) | 0:55 |
Men Results
| Round 1 | |||||||
| 16 | 19-Apr | 12:00 | 3 | Soderberg-Hoyer, A. DEN [31] | Alison-Emanuel BRA [2] | 0-2 (17-21, 22-24) | 0:46 |
| 15 | 19-Apr | 12:00 | 6 | Brinkborg-Gunnarsson SWE [15] | Cès A.-Cès K. FRA [18] | 0-2 (19-21, 18-21) | 0:43 |
| 14 | 19-Apr | 12:00 | 5 | Huber-Seidl AUT [23] | Gibb-Rosenthal USA [10] | 0-2 (15-21, 11-21) | 0:32 |
| 13 | 19-Apr | 12:00 | 4 | Erdmann-Matysik GER [7] | Saxton-Redmann CAN [26] | 2-0 (21-14, 25-23) | 0:38 |
| 12 | 19-Apr | 11:00 | 2 | Keenan-Mayer USA [27] | Marcio Araujo-Pedro BRA [6] | 0-2 (14-21, 14-21) | 0:35 |
| 11 | 19-Apr | 11:00 | 4 | Geor-Gia GEO [11] | Kadziola-Szalankiewicz POL [22] | 0-2 (15-21, 4-21) | 0:29 |
| 10 | 19-Apr | 11:00 | 3 | Prokopiev-Likholetov RUS [19] | Boersma E.-Spijkers NED [14] | 1-2 (21-18, 17-21, 9-15) | 0:48 |
| 9 | 19-Apr | 11:00 | 1 | Ricardo-Cunha BRA [3] | Mercer-Slack AUS [30] | 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) | 0:34 |
| 8 | 19-Apr | 10:00 | 1 | Grotowski-Garcia-Thompson GBR [29] | Fuerbringer-Lucena USA [4] | 0-2 (19-21, 12-21) | 0:39 |
| 7 | 19-Apr | 10:00 | 4 | Dollinger-Windscheif GER [13] | Lochhead-Pitman NZL [20] | 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) | 0:39 |
| 6 | 19-Apr | 10:00 | 3 | Sekerci-Gögtepe V. TUR [21] | Samoilovs-Sorokins LAT [12] | 1-2 (25-23, 23-25, 10-15) | 0:58 |
| 5 | 19-Apr | 10:00 | 2 | Herrera-Gavira ESP [5] | Horrem-Eithun NOR [28] | 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 17-15) | 0:58 |
| 4 | 19-Apr | 09:00 | 4 | Harley-Evandro BRA [25] | Xu-Wu CHN [8] | 2-1 (21-19, 15-21, 15-9) | 0:51 |
| 3 | 19-Apr | 09:00 | 6 | Nicolai-Lupo ITA [9] | Mesa-Lario ESP [24] | 0-2 (19-21, 15-21) | 0:39 |
| 2 | 19-Apr | 09:00 | 3 | Laciga M.-Weingart SUI [17] | Santos-Vitor Felipe BRA [16] | 0-2 (17-21, 16-21) | 0:40 |
| 1 | 19-Apr | 09:00 | 5 | Rogers-Dalhausser USA [1] | Kunert-Petutschnig AUT [32] | 2-0 (21-13, 21-10) | 0:30 |
| Round 2 | |||||||
| 24 | 19-Apr | 16:00 | 2 | Cès A.-Cès K. FRA [18] | Alison-Emanuel BRA [2] | 0-2 (19-21, 19-21) | 0:34 |
| 23 | 19-Apr | 16:00 | 3 | Erdmann-Matysik GER [7] | Gibb-Rosenthal USA [10] | 2-1 (23-21, 16-21, 15-13) | 0:58 |
| 22 | 19-Apr | 15:00 | 3 | Kadziola-Szalankiewicz POL [22] | Marcio Araujo-Pedro BRA [6] | 1-2 (21-19, 16-21, 12-15) | 0:53 |
| 21 | 19-Apr | 15:00 | 2 | Ricardo-Cunha BRA [3] | Boersma E.-Spijkers NED [14] | 2-1 (18-21, 26-24, 15-10) | 1:03 |
| 20 | 19-Apr | 14:00 | 3 | Dollinger-Windscheif GER [13] | Fuerbringer-Lucena USA [4] | 0-2 (21-23, 14-21) | 0:39 |
| 19 | 19-Apr | 14:00 | 2 | Herrera-Gavira ESP [5] | Samoilovs-Sorokins LAT [12] | 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) | 0:32 |
| 18 | 19-Apr | 13:00 | 2 | Mesa-Lario ESP [24] | Harley-Evandro BRA [25] | 1-2 (23-21, 14-21, 11-15) | 0:55 |
| 17 | 19-Apr | 13:00 | 1 | Rogers-Dalhausser USA [1] | Santos-Vitor Felipe BRA [16] | 1-2 (21-18, 18-21, 9-15) | 0:56 |
| Loser are ranked 25th | |||||||
| 32 | 19-Apr | 16:00 | 4 | Brinkborg-Gunnarsson SWE [15] | Soderberg-Hoyer, A. DEN [31] | 0-2 (14-21, 18-21) | 0:40 |
| 31 | 19-Apr | 16:00 | 5 | Saxton-Redmann CAN [26] | Huber-Seidl AUT [23] | 0-2 (17-21, 14-21) | 0:34 |
| 30 | 19-Apr | 15:00 | 5 | Geor-Gia GEO [11] | Keenan-Mayer USA [27] | 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) | 0:32 |
| 29 | 19-Apr | 15:00 | 4 | Mercer-Slack AUS [30] | Prokopiev-Likholetov RUS [19] | 0-2 (14-21, 19-21) | 0:36 |
| 28 | 19-Apr | 14:00 | 5 | Lochhead-Pitman NZL [20] | Grotowski-Garcia-Thompson GBR [29] | 2-1 (21-15, 13-21, 16-14) | 0:51 |
| 27 | 19-Apr | 14:00 | 4 | Horrem-Eithun NOR [28] | Sekerci-Gögtepe V. TUR [21] | 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) | 0:42 |
| 26 | 19-Apr | 13:00 | 4 | Nicolai-Lupo ITA [9] | Xu-Wu CHN [8] | 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) | 0:31 |
| 25 | 19-Apr | 13:00 | 3 | Kunert-Petutschnig AUT [32] | Laciga M.-Weingart SUI [17] | 2-1 (21-18, 15-21, 15-12) | 0:46 |
(Source: FIVB)