After missing out on medals at the World Championships for the first time ever last week in Hamburg, Brazilian women’s beach volleyball bounced back strong as the country is guaranteed a team in the gold medal match of the Swatch Major Gstaad.
Rebecca Cavalcanti and Ana Patricia Ramos secured their nation a medal in the Swiss Alps after they ousted reigning world champions and 2018 Gstaad Major winners Sarah Pavan and Melissa-Humana Paredes of Canada 21-14, 18-21, 15-9 and put themselves in position for a semi-final match-up with compatriots Carolina Salgado and Maria Elisa Antonelli, who had qualified earlier.
“It was a very tough match because Sarah and Melissa are in great form,” Ana Patricia commented. “Losing a set is always hard especially after playing so well on the first, but we got back to a good rhythm on the third set and were able to impose our game again.
“This is a very important finish for us already because of Olympic qualification and we’re very excited to be in the semi-finals.”
This will be the first semi-final appearance for both Rebecca and Ana Patricia in a Beach Major Series event. To go one step further and compete for the cowbells in Gstaad, where they were eliminated in the qualifiers last year, the Brazilians will have to subvert an extremely unfavorable record against Carol and Maria Elisa, who won the first nine meetings between the teams until Rebecca and Ana downed them for the first only time so far last April in Xiamen on their way to take gold.
“We know them very well and that just makes want to study them even more to get us ready for another good match,” Ana Patricia, who scored eight block points in the quarter-final, added.
