Can Tho, Vietnam, April 21, 2018 – With Australian top seeds Phoebe Bell/Jessyka Ngauamo unable to continue their fight due to an injury problem, Kazakh second seeds Tatyana Mashkova/Irina Tsimbalova proved to be the strongest team with the best chance of capturing the crown at the AVC Beach Volleyball Tour Vietnam Can Tho Open.

Bell/Ngauamo, fourth place at the recent AVC Beach Tour “19th Samila Open” in Songkhla, Thailand, suffered from an unidentified injury in their opening match against Thailand 2’s Chaninporn Muenphad/Thitika Simuang, to whom they lost 6-21 in the first set and could not get back on track in the second set, which ended 0-21.

There was a mistake of Day 1 reported, mentioning that the Australians won the Friday’s match against Thailand 2. However, the Australia 1’s wrong result was replaced by the corrected one, while Bell/Ngauamo’s matches against Vietnam 3’s Du Thi My Linh/Danh My Nhan and Japan 2’s Reika Murakami/Chiyo Suzuki on Saturday in Pool A ended in 0-21 0-21 in both matches.

Japan 2’s Murakami/Suzuki moved to the top spot of Pool A with 7 points from 4 wins against 1 loss, while Thailand 2’s Chaninporn/Thitika are trailing in second place with 6 points from three straight wins. A likely win in their final pool match on Sunday against Vietnam 2’s Truing Thi Moc Nhat/Nguyen Thi Diem Trinh will help Thais Chaninporn/Thitika surge ahead the Japan 2’s duo to the top of Pool A.

Murakami/Suzuki went down a hard-fought battle to Chaninporn/Thitika 19-21 17-21 on Saturday before beating the top seeds Bell/Ngauamo 2-0 on the same day. The Thailand 2’s duo have yet lost a set in the pool plays, beating Hong Kong 1’s Yuen Ting Chi/Au Yeung Wai Yan 2-0 and Aussies Bell/Ngauamo 2-0 in their first two encounters on Friday.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan 1’s Tatyana Mashkova/Irina Tsimbalova, silver medallists at the recent double-gender, one-star World Tour Pak Bara Beach Satun and winners at the 2014 Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand, continued their unbeaten run with two comfortable wins on Saturday.

The Kazakh pairing, fresh from beating Thailand 1’s Anchara Changkham/Sirinuch Kawfong 2-0 in their opening Pool B encounter on Friday, outclassed Vietnam 2’s Truong Thi Moc Nhat/Nguyen Thi Diem Trinh 21-14 21-15 before thrashing Hong Kong 2’s To Wing Tung/Kong Cheuk Yee in a totally lop-sided affair 21-8 21-14.

After two days of the pool round-robin preliminaries, Kazakhs Mashkova/Tsimbalova stay at the top of Pool B with 6 points from three wins in a row. They are due to take on Australia 2’s Brittany Kendall/Stefanie Weiler in their final pool match on Sunday.

In Pool C, New Zealand’s Julia Tilley/Alice Bain and Indonesians Eka Yokebed/Desi Ratnasari joined the leadership with the similar 4 points from 2 wins, with the former beating Singapore 1’s Eliza Chong Hui Hui /Serene Ng 21-17 21-10 and the latter overpowering Kazakhstan 2’s Alina Rachenko/Yeropkina Yelizaveta 21-15 21-19 on Saturday.

Japan 1’s Takemi Nishibori/Ayumi Kusano and Vietnam 1’s Nguyen Thi Cam Tien/Truong Duong Thi My Huyen still lead the charge in Pool D after both teams had the similar 4 points from two successive victories. The host team on Saturday spent 35 minutes in thrashing Singapore 2’s Rachel Lau Yue Ting/Vanessa Lim Wan Yong 21-16 21-13, while the Japanese duo proved too strong for Jessie Lai/Shu Woon Joo, allowing the Malaysians only 7 points to bag easy two sets 21-4 21-3 in 24 minutes.

The pool plays continue on Sunday with teams vying for the top two in each pool to qualify for the quarter-finals, where a drawing of lots will be conducted at the court to decide the match schedule in the single elimination. The four winning teams in the quarter-finals will advance to the Monday morning’s semi-finals.

A total of 18 teams from 10 countries including Australia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Singapore are competing in the AVC Beach Tour Vietnam Can Tho Open to vie for the top honour.

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