truebluefan

Phuket, Thailand, November 1, 2007 - The last time that Ana Paula Connelly played with a member of the Bede family, she left with a SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medal and an Asian trophy in her luggage.



The Brazilian is hoping that her luggage for her return trip home next Monday to Rio de Janeiro will contain another FIVB medal and Asian trophy as she has teamed with another Bede this week’s US$200,000 Phuket Thailand Open powered by ptt on Karon Beach.



With her regular partner Leila Barros sidelined with injuries since early August, Ana Paula is playing with her fourth different partner this season as she posted a pair of Main Draw wins here Thursday with two-time Olympic silver medal winner Shelda Bede over teams from Germany and France to advance to a Friday meeting against reigning Olympic and SWATCH-FIVB World champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States.



The last time Ana Paula played with a Bede, she won the 2005 SWATCH stop in Japan with Shelda’s younger sister Shaylyn as the pair captured the Osaka gold medal by upsetting Brazilian rivals Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca 19-21, 21-17 and 15-10 in the finals. Shelda was also part of the Osaka podium as she captured the bronze medal with Adriana Behar after losing to Juliana and Larissa in the semi-finals.



“Playing with Shelda is like playing with Shaylyn,” said the 35-year old Ana Paula, who has captured eight SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medals with four different partners in eight international seasons while Shelda claimed 31 crowns in 13 seasons with Adriana. “I do a lot of jump serving, running to the net and falling back.”



A 13-season SWATCH veteran, the 34-year old Shelda played in her first 11 FIVB events this season with Adriana. With Shelda missing events in Finland and Russia due to injuries, Adriana teamed with Ana Paula to place fourth and fifth in Aland and St. Petersburg, respectively. Shelda and Adriana reunited for a fourth-place at September’s SWATCH stop in Brazil where Ana Paula and her Athens 2004 Olympic partner Sandra Pires finished seventh.



“With Leila, Adriana and Sandra, I did not have to play at the net all the time,” Ana Paula added. “It is more difficult now, but Shelda is the best player in the world at playing defense. We had fun today, but tomorrow will be tougher against Misty and Kerri.”



With only two women’s teams from Beach Volleyball power Brazil eligible for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the tandems of Ana Paula/Leila (3,060) Adriana/Shelda (2,940) trail Juliana/Larissa (5,200) and Talita Antunes/Renata Ribeiro (3,940) on the Summer Games qualifying list.



When asked about attempting an Olympic qualifying effort for Beijing with Shelda after her team’s two matches Thursday, Ana Paula smiled and said, “We will see. Give us a chance to play this weekend and assess the result. To surpass Talita and Renata on the Olympic list would mean posting podium placements and hope that they can not achieve any more medal successes.”



For all non-European teams, a tandems’ best eight finishes count towards Olympic qualification with the Beijing process concluding July 20, 2008. For European teams, a finish in the continental championships from this season or next July can count as a qualifying event for Beijing.



Other teams posting 2-0 marks Thursday in the Phuket Thailand Open like May-Treanor/Walsh, Ana Paula/Shelda and Talita/Renata were Americans Tyra Turner/Rachel Wacholder and Jen Boss/April Ross, Germans Rieke Brink-Abeler/Hella Jurich and Geeske Banck/Anja Gunther, and China’s Jia Tian/Jie Wang.



With 16 other teams remaining in the field with one defeat each, defending Phuket Thailand Open champions Chen Xue and Xi Zhang of China, who defeated Tian and Wang for the gold medal last November, were eliminated Thursday after losing their first match and forfeiting their second contest due to injuries.



Friday’s 22-match schedule will feature the first two semi-final qualifying matches. After opening Saturday’s play with the final two rounds in the contender’s bracket of the double-elimination event, the Phuket Thailand Open semi-finals will be played Saturday afternoon. The final two teams compete Sunday afternoon for the gold medal and the $32,000 first-place prize.

truebluefan

Phuket, Thailand, November 1, 2007 - With the completion of the first-round of the Main Draw at the final event on the 2007 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour calendar, there are some interesting notes as the delightful weather has attracted fans to the seaside resort village at Karon Beach.



With 14 of the 102 players competing in the US$200,000 Phuket Thailand Open powered by ptt under the age of 21, two of the most experienced players on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour are competing together for the first-time in an international Beach Volleyball event.



With a combined age of 69, Olympians Ana Paula Connelly (35) and Shelda Bede (34) are competing together this week for the first-time as the eighth-seeded Brazilians opened with a 21-14 and 21-18 win over 25th-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany. The two Brazilians have competed for 39 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medals, including 31 by Shelda with long-time partner Adriana Behar.



Shelda is completing her 13th-season on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour as she and Adriana captured world championships in 1999 and 2001 with a silver medal in 2003 and a third-place in 1997. Shelda and Adriana also claimed Olympic silver medals at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games.



Ana Paula, who serves as a women’s player representative on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Council, placed fifth at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games where she and Sandra Pires were eliminated by Adriana and Shelda in the quarter-finals.



The Ana Paula/Shelda partnership was formed due to injuries to their regular partners. With Leila Barros and Shelda sidelined, Ana Paula and Adriana played in two events earlier this season in Finland and Russia. Adriana and Shelda competed together at the end of September in a Brazilian stop in Fortaleza where Ana Paula reunited with Sandra.



Teams from host Thailand split their opening matches Thursday morning. Tenth-seeded Usa Tenpaksee and Jarunee Sannok scored a 21-16 and 21-19 Thai win over 23rd-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna and Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins of Georgia while ninth-seeded Kamoltip Kulna and Yupa Puklongploy dropped a 19-21, 23-21 and 15-12 decision to 24th-seeded Eva Hamzaoui/Deborah Giaoui of France.



Tenpaksee and Sannok will play 26th-seeded Geeske Banck and Anja Gunther of Germany, who upset seventh-seeded Lu Wang and Man Zuo (27-25 and 21-19), in their second Phuket Thailand Open match Thursday afternoon. Kulna and Puklongploy face Holtwick and Semmler in an elimination match. Holtwick and Semmler won the European tour point’s title this season.



Five seed-break-throughs highlighted Thursday’s opening first-round schedule as the top two-seeded teams in the Phuket Thailand Open were extended to three sets Thursday. Reigning Olympic and three-time SWATCH-FIVB World champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh recovered from a first set setback to Galyna Osheyko and Svitlana Baburina to defeat the 32nd-seeded from the Ukraine 18-21, 22-20 and 15-11 in 62 minutes.



Second-seeded Jia Tian and Jie Wang of China, who won the 2007 season opening event in Shanghai this past May, overcame a 21-19 first set loss to 31st-seeded Takemi Nishibori and Miwa Asao to capture the match with 21-10 and 15-9 wins in the final two sets. The Japanese had to win two qualifying matches Wednesday to advance to the Main Draw. Tian and Wang lost the 2006 Phuket Thailand Open gold medal match to Chen Xue and Xi Zhang.



After winning two qualifying matches Wednesday to advance to the “money” rounds, 30th-seeded Mered de Vries/Sanne Keizer of the Netherlands posted Thursday’s biggest upset with a 23-21 and 21-19 win over third-seeded Xue and Zhang. The Dutch will face 14th-seeded Rieke Brink-Abeler/Hella Jurich as the Germans scored a 21-19 and 35-33 opening win over 19th-seeded Efthalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece.



Friday’s 22-match schedule will feature the first two semi-final qualifying matches. After opening Saturday’s play with the final two rounds in the contender’s bracket of the double-elimination event, the Phuket Thailand Open semi-finals will be played Saturday afternoon. The final two teams compete Sunday afternoon for the gold medal and the $32,000 first-place prize.