Lausanne, Switzerland, June 17, 2017 – Juliana Felisberta and new partner Carol Horta reached their first semifinals since they teamed up at the start of the year, at the Monaco 1-Star event at Larvotto Beach on Saturday.
The Brazilian pair are playing in their second FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event and reached the last four by defeating France’s Margaux Carrere and Alexia Richard 2-1 (21-15, 14-25, 15-9).
Felisberta, FIVB world champion with Larissa Franca in 2011, and Horta will now take on New Zealand’s Shauna Polley and Kelsie Wells in the semifinals on Sunday.
Polley and Wills enjoyed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) victory over Denmark’s Line Trans and Maria Tyndeskov in the quarterfinals. It is the Kiwi pair’s World Tour debut having previously played in four Asian Tour events together.
The other semifinal pitches Germany’s Kim Behrens and Anni Schumacher against Greece’s Panagiota Karagkouni.
Behrens and Schumacher saw off Japan’s Akiko Futami and Azusa Hasegawa 2-0 (21-10, 21-14), while the Greek duo defeated Serbia’s Tijana Basic and Milena Matic 2-0 (21-14, 21-15).
Brazil, Germany, Denmark (with 2 teams), Scotland, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Serbia, Switzerland and the USA all sent teams to the tournament that has a winner’s purse of $10,000.