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| Jen Kessy (left) watches American partner April Ross stretch for Mikasa Friday afternoon at the Sanya Open |
Sanya, China, October 30, 2009 - After playing three-straight days, Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti are looking forward to an off day after the new Italian team posted a pair of wins over teams from Russia and the United States here Friday to become the first women’s team from their country to advance to a SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final four” since 2001.
With six-straight wins in the US$380,000 Sanya Open presented by Olympic Bay, Cicolari and Menegatti join top-seeded and reigning SWATCH FIVB World Championships Jen Kessy and April Ross as the first two women’s Beach Volleyball teams to reach the semi-finals in the second annual event on the courts in front of the Hai Po Resort on Sanya Bay.
Both the Americans and the Italians will have Saturday off as six other women’s teams will compete in the final two Sanya Open elimination rounds to determine the remaining two “final four” spots in the next to last event on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar with the season finale being staged next week on Karon Beach in Phuket, Thailand.
The 15th-seeded Cicolari and Menegatti opened play Friday morning by posting a 21-14 and 21-12 win in 34 minutes over 26th-seeded Ekaterina Khomyakova and Anastasia Vasina of Russia before becoming the third Italian women’s team in the 18-year history of the women’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour to advance to a semi-final with a 21-13 and 21-16 win in 41 minutes over third-seeded Angie Akers and Tyra Turner of the United States.
The last Italian women’s team to reach a SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final four” was Daniela Gattelli and Lucilla Perrotta when they captured the bronze medal at an August 2001 event in Hong Kong. It was Gattelli and Perrotta’s only semi-final appearance in 103 events as the Hong Kong third was Italy’s only women’s medal in the past 201 SWATCH stops since 1992. Laura Bruschini and Annamaria Solazzi reached a SWATCH “final four” three times in 1998 to become the first Italian women’s team to reach the semi-finals.
“We look forward to having Saturday off from competition since we had to play in the qualifier Wednesday,” said the 27-year old Cicolari, who is competing internationally for the first-time this season. “The conditions today were very hot, so we are really tired as we had to play at such a high level today. We won our matches today by siding out consistently along with putting pressure on our opponents with our service game, especially against the Americans.”
The win over Akers and Turner was the second over a top-three seed this week as Cicolari and Menegatti scored a 22-20 and 21-18 win late Thursday afternoon over second-seeded Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig of Germany, the 2009 European Tour champions. “Are we surprising the other teams, I don’t know,” Cicolari added. “We are just trying to improve with every match. And getting to play at least eight matches this week against some of the top teams in the world is great.”
Kessy and Ross opened play Friday with a 21-6 and 21-15 win in 37 minutes over 25th-seeded qualifiers Danielle Remmers and Sophie van Gestel of The Netherlands before advancing to their second-straight Sanya Open semi-final with a 21-19 and 24-22 win in 47 minutes over fifth-seeded Vassiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece. It was Kessy and Ross’ sixth-straight win over the Greeks this season as the two teams played for a gold medal in France in July.
Saturday’s elimination schedule will feature a second opportunity for Arvaniti/Tsiartsiani and Akers Turner to qualify for the semi-finals in the 12th and final double gender event on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar. Goller and Ludwig will play Remmers and van Gestel in an opening match with the winner playing Akers and Turner for a semi-final spot opposite of Kessy and Ross, the defending Sanya Open champions.
In the second opening elimination match Saturday, 26th-seeded Ekaterina Khomyakova/Anastasia Vasina or challenge 11th-seeded Simone Kuhn/Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland with the victor meeting Arvaniti and Tsiartsiani for an opportunity to play Cicolari and Menegatti in Sunday’s second semi-final match.
The men’s Sanya Open medal matches will be played Saturday with China’s Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu challenging Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of The Netherlands in the finals. The women’s “final four” matches will be played Sunday as the winning teams on the weekend will split the $30,000 first-place prizes.
