Women's Beach Volleyball teams from South American and Europe are pacing the field at the US$350,000 Hyundai Open Barcelona as the tandems of Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca of Brazil and Vassiliki Arvaniti and Vasso Karadassiou of Greece won a pair of matches each Thursday to advance to the "final four" at this week's SWATCH FIVB World Tour event.
The top-seeded Juliana and Larissa advanced to their fifth-straight SWATCH "final four" this season, 12th-consecutive since last June and 48th overall. For the seventh-seeded Arvaniti and Karadassiou, the Hyundai Open Barcelona semi-final appearance is the Greeks first this year and seventh overall in 41 FIVB starts since the start of the 2005 season.
While Juliana and Larissa were defeating Brazilian rivals and fourth-seeded Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro for the 23rd-time in 28 SWATCH meetings since 2005 with a 21-14 and 22-20 win in 41 minutes, Arvaniti and Karadassiou posted a 21-15 and 21-17 semi-final-qualifying victory in 40 minutes over third-seeded Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly of Brazil.
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