SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World CHAMIONSHIPS 2011 - ROMA - The courts on Fire !

Another Hot day in Rome and not only because the sun, most of the matches on all the courts was very interesting to follow. Most of the Top seeded are still on the road but we had great surprises too.

Kessy/Ross, who defeated Juliana/Larissa in the 2009 FIVB Swatch World Championships in Stavanger, Norway, needed just two sets on Thursday to defeat Canada’s 39th-seeded Heather Bansley/Elizabeth Maloney, 21-14, 21-14 in 39 minutes.

Juliana/Larissa advanced Thursday with their 21-16, 21-14 victory in 35 minutes over Switzerland’s 46th-seeded Tanja Goricanec/Muriel Graessli. The Brazilians are the three-time reigning FIVB Swatch World Tour champions with a silver medal, bronze and another silver medal in the last three FIVB Swatch World Championships.

In their win over Bansley/Maloney, Kessy was credited with 18 attacks, 11 kills, six digs and one block and Ross recorded 21 attacks, 11 kills, 10 digs, three blocks and one ace serve.

Following their first round win over the Canadians, Ross commented, “Last time we played them in Thailand (Nov. 2010), we lost to them so it put us on edge a little bit today. We knew they were a good team. We came in guns blaring because we knew they could score points with their serves. In the World Championships, you have to play as hard as you can every single match. There is no way you will take any team for granted.”

Second-seeded Brazilians Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes overcame the challenge of Czech Republic’s 44th-seeded Sona Novakova/Tereza Tobiasova, 21-19, 21-13 and 15-11 in a 53-minute match. Antonelli stats in the match included 44 attacks, 20 kills, 12 digs and two aces while Antunes tallied 36 attacks, 20 kills, 13 digs and three aces.

In a battle of two Dutch teams, Netherlands fourth-seeded Sanne Keizer/Marleen Van Iersel beat 25th-seeded compatriots Rebekka Kadijk/Merel Mooren, 21-17, 21-15 in 37 minutes.

Three-time FIVB Swatch World Champions and two-time Olympic gold medal winners Misty May Treanor/Kerri Walsh of the United States were victorious over Great Britain’s 41st-seeded Zara Dampney/Shauna Mullin, 21-13, 21-12 in 29 minutes. In their victory, May-Treanor had 24 attacks, 16 kills, 14 digs and three aces while Walsh contributed 14 attacks, 9 kills, one dig and three blocks.

Brazil’s ninth-seeded Vivian Cunha/Taiana Lima were upset by USA’s 12th-seeded Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Hanson, 23-25, 20-22 in 44 minutes and USA’s 11th-seeded Angie Akers/Nicole Branagh were upset by Czech Republic’s 22nd-seeded Lenka Hajeckova/Hana Klapalova, 22-24, 21-19 and 13-15 in 56 minutes.

The surprise pool winners who won again in Thursday’s first elimination round was Italy’s popular 13th-seeded Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti along with Australia’s 18th-seeded Louise Bawden/Becchara Palmer, and Spain’s 23rd-seeded Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez and China’s eighth-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang.

Lili and Elsa (ESP) very happy of winning this important match

(source photo: Karim Levy)

Women schedule

Round of 16
96	17-Jun	15:00	4	Maria Clara-Carol BRA [10]	Larissa-Juliana BRA [1]
95	17-Jun	15:00	5	Liliana-Baquerizo ESP [23]	Fendrick-Hanson USA [12]
94	17-Jun	11:30	4	Klapalova-Hajeckova CZE [22]	Bawden-Palmer AUS [18]
93	17-Jun	11:30	5	Keizer-Van Iersel NED [4]	Köhler-Sude GER [24]
92	17-Jun	16:05	2	Holtwick-Semmler GER [40]	Kessy-Ross USA [3]
91	17-Jun	16:05	1	May-Treanor-Walsh USA [5]	Goller-Ludwig GER [7]
90	17-Jun	12:30	1	Cicolari-Menegatti ITA [13]	Xue-Zhang Xi CHN [8]
89	17-Jun	12:30	2	Talita-Antonelli BRA [2]	Schwaiger-Schwaiger AUT [6]

Men Schedule

Round of 32
88	17-Jun	14:05	1	Mesa-Lario ESP [32]	Emanuel-Alison BRA [2]
87	17-Jun	14:05	2	Xu-Wu CHN [6]	Semenov-Koshkarev RUS [16]
86	17-Jun	14:00	4	Ferramenta-Pedro BRA [12]	Samoilovs-Sorokins LAT [38]
85	17-Jun	14:00	5	Fuerbringer-Lucena USA [7]	Müllner-Horst AUT [33]
84	17-Jun	13:00	4	Fijalek-Prudel POL [30]	Redmann-Saxton CAN [46]
83	17-Jun	13:00	5	Benes P.-Kubala CZE [11]	Bruno-Benjamin BRA [8]
82	17-Jun	10:30	4	Rogers-Dalhausser USA [1]	Gibb-Rosenthal USA [10]
81	17-Jun	10:30	5	Brink-Reckermann GER [4]	Vesik-Jaani EST [34]
80	17-Jun	15:05	1	Kadziola-Szalankiewicz POL [45]	Marcio Araujo-Ricardo BRA [3]
79	17-Jun	15:05	2	Gabathuler-Schnider SUI [27]	Dollinger-Windscheif GER [36]
78	17-Jun	11:05	2	Herrera-Gavira ESP [9]	Heuscher-Bellaguarda SUI [21]
77	17-Jun	11:05	1	Nummerdor-Schuil NED [17]	Nicolai-Martino ITA [14]
76	17-Jun	09:30	4	Erdmann-Matysik GER [20]	Lochhead-Pitman NZL [26]
75	17-Jun	09:30	5	Plavins-Smedins, J. LAT [15]	Thiago-Harley BRA [18]
74	17-Jun	10:05	2	Soderberg-Hoyer, A. DEN [23]	Heyer-Chevallier SUI [29]
73	17-Jun	10:05	1	Jennings-Wong USA [24]	Doppler-Mellitzer AUT [44