Two More Brazilian Men's Team Enter Semis of China Shanghai Open
Second-seeded Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado and seventh-seeded Pedro Cunha/Franco Neto, both from Brazil, joined compatriots Marcio Araujo/Fabio Magalhaes and Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin of China in the US$350,000 China Shanghai Jinshan Open men’s semi-finals here Friday.
Marcio Araujo/Fabio and Wu/Xu advanced to the “final four” Thursday by completing their winner’s bracket schedule with 4-0 match marks each and Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado and Pedro Cunha/Franco Neto had to win elimination matches Friday morning.
Cunha and Franco, who dropped into the elimination bracket after losing 21-19, 16-21 and 15-10 in 65 minutes in Marcio Araujo and Fabio Thursday afternoon, advanced to their semi-final in 32 international starts together with 21-19 and 21-19 win in 50 minutes over 21st-seeded Jorre Kjemperud and Tarjei Skarlund of Norway.
After losing to Cunha and Franco 21-18 and 21-19 Thursday morning, Harley and Salgado have won three-straight elimination matches to advance to “final four”.
Harley and Salgado opened play Friday with a 21-19, 19-21 and 15-11 win in 63 minutes over sixth-seeded Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack of Australia before advancing to their eighth FIVB semi-final in 18 SWATCH starts with a 21-18 and 21-16 victory in 43 minutes over eighth-seeded Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider of Switzerland.
The men’s semi-final winners will play Saturday afternoon for the $28,000 first-place prize in the second of 16 double gender events on the 2008 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour calendar.
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