All top four seeds cruise to women’s semifinals, Thailand’s top seeds Pitak/Poravid seek a revenge match against Nuvali Open champions
Songkhla, Thailand, April 15, 2024 – Anticipation has reached a fever pitch at the AVC Beach Tour 23rd Samila Open when top teams powered their ways into the action-packed semifinals, with Australia’s top two seeds setting up rematches with old foes in the women’s event and Thailand’s top seeds Pitak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato locking horns with Iranians Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajanighasab in the men’s final rematch of the last week’s Nuvali Open in Philippines.
In terms of the participating countries in the women’s semifinals on Tuesday, it will be an all-Oceanians battle between Australia and New Zealand in the first encounter, with Australia up against Japan in the second match. The men’s semifinals see Thailand challenge Iran and Australia take on New Zealand in another all-Oceanians affair.
In the women’s event, Australia’s top seeds Stefanie Fejes/Jana Milutinovic take on Kiwi fourth seeds Alice Zeimann/Shaunna Polley, to whom they lost in the gold-medal match at this year’s BPT Futures Mount Maunganui, as Australian second seeds Jasmine Fleming/Georgia Johnson set up last week’s Nuvali Open semifinals rematch with Japan’s third seeds Asami Shiba/Saki Maruyama.
Thailand’s top seeds Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato, who succumbed to two-set loss to Iranians Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajanighasab in the men’s final at the last week’s AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open in Philippines, are looking forward to avenging the Iranians, who have their sights firmly set on winning back-to-back AVC Beach Tour event. The other semifinal clash see Australia’s fifth seeds Paul Burnet/Jack Pearse fight it out with Kiwi sixth seeds Thomas Reid/John McManaway.
Earlier on Monday morning, qualified teams tried to play their best in the round of 16, hoping to make it through to the afternoon quarterfinals.
Australians Fejes/Milutinovic, who claimed gold without dropping a set to their respective rivals at the last week’s AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open in Philippines, struggled to beat Japanese Ren Matsumoto/Non Matsumoto in hard-fought three-setter 21-18, 17-21, 15-13 in the round of 16.
The Aussies continued their brilliant performance in the quarterfinals to see off Kazakhstan’s Laura Kabulbekova/Nadezhda Ivanchenko 2-0 (21-10, 21-19) for a slot in the semifinals, where Fejes/Milutinovic are expected to have a crunch time there.
However, Alice Zeimann/Shaunna Polley can become a thorn in the Australians’ flesh. The Kiwis have already beaten Fejes/Milutinovic at the final showdown of this year’s BPT Futures Mount Maunganui apart from capturing gold at the 2022 Asian Senior Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship in Roi Et, Thailand and the back-to-back Beach Pro Tour Futures Mount Maunganui on home soil.
Unbeaten Zeimann/Polley showed no mercy to Sherysyn Toko/Loti Joe, annihilating the Vanuatu’s pairing in a one-sided battle 21-7, 21-10 in 29 minutes in the round of 16 to later demolish Indonesians Desi Ratnasari/Nur Sari Atika 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) in the quarterfinals.
The semifinal clash between Fejes/Milutinovic and Zeimann/Polley on Tuesday promises thrills and spills, as only the winners will move one step closer to winning the Samila Open.
Australians Fleming/Johnson, who had claimed their first BPT gold in Geelong Futures last November and silver at the last week’s Nuvali Open, beat Vietnamese Dinh Thi My Nga /Ly Ho Tuyet Minh 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) in the round of 16 and went on to stun Vanuatu’s Linline Matauatu/Majabelle Lawac 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals on Tuesday morning, Fleming/Johnson will take on Asami Shiba/Saki Maruyama, the rivals they had already beaten in the semifinals at last week’s Nuvali Open. En route to the semifinals, the Japanese third seeds outclassed Thailand’s Varaghkhana Sogalee/Somruedee Koedkaew 2-0 (21-9, 21-15).
The Japanese repeated the feat with another 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) triumph over another Thai duo, Patcharaporn Seehawong/Samitta Simarongnam, 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) in the round of 16 and quarterfinals respectively.
In the men’s event, Thailand’s Pithak/Poravid stay on course, overcoming Kittituch Khomkham/Phichakon Narathon 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) in the all-Thais round of 16 clash, but struggled to beat Japanese Takumi Takahashi/Jumpei Ikeda 2-1 (22-20, 14-21, 15-12) in the quarterfinals.
However, a daunting task awaits Pithak/Poravid in the semifinals when they will challenge Iranian 13th seeds Abbas Pourasgari/Alireza Aghajanighasab, who comfortably beat them 0-2 in the final showdown of the last week’s AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open.
Australian fifth seeds Paul Burnett/Jack Pearse, who won their first Beach Pro Tour Futures event together last November in Geelong, overcame a strong challenge from Li Zhuoxin/Liu Chuangyong to beat the Chinese duo in three-setter 15-21, 21-13, 15-10 in the round of 16.
In the quarterfinals, Burnett/Pearse posted a stunning upset 2-1 (21-13, 21-23, 15-6) win against defending champions Wu Jiaxin/Ha Likejiang, who had already won three BPT Futures gold medals last year including the Futures Mt Maunganui in New Zealand and the Futures Coolangatta in Australia.
Aussies Burnett/Pearse will clash with Thomas Reid/John McManaway in the semifinals. The Kiwi sixth seeds defeated Qataris Ahmed Tijan/Ihab Mohamed Zaki 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) in the round of 16 to next pull off a surprise 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) win against Australia’s third seeds Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher in the quarterfinals.
On Tuesday, the semifinals will start at 8.30am Bangkok time, followed respective by the third-place playoffs, the finals, awards presentation and the closing ceremony respectively in the afternoon.
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