Moscow, Russia, June 15, 2014 – Kerri Walsh and April Ross will meet FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour champions Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima in the Moscow Grand Slam gold medal match on Sunday.
The American pair are chasing their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Grand Slam gold of the year and were ruthless in their 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) win over the Netherlands Marleen van Iersel and Madelein Meppelink.
“I feel really good,” Walsh said. “We played a really good team and they are a new team. They are very, very, physical and very smart ball players, but April and I focused on ourselves.”
Ross and Walsh only teamed up in mid-2013, but still finished the year with gold medals from the Sao Paolo and Xiamen Grand Slams and then this year they won the first tournament of the World Tour, the Fuzhou Open in China.
“We’ve had some great times already and have hit some bumps in the road, but we’re enjoying all of it,” Walsh added. “The really important thing is we are staying close together and communicating really well, which gives me great hope for our future together.”
Brazilians Talita and Lima had to save two match points at the end of the second set before they fought back to beat Spain’s Liliana Fernandez and Elsa Baquerizo 2-1 (15-21, 23-21, 15-10) and reach their first final of 2014.
The double-gender US$800,000 FIVB Moscow Grand Slam runs from Wednesday, June 11 through to Sunday June 15. It is the sixth event and the second Grand Slam on the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar that features nine Grand Slams and 11 Open tournaments.
The 2014 World Tour began at the Fuzhou Open in China in April and concludes at the Durban Open in South Africa in December. Next up on the World Tour calendar is the Berlin Grand Slam which runs from June 17-22.