2018-08-03 20:08:00 CET
Carol/Maria will aim to beat Hermannová/Sluková again…
Czech Republic stars Marketa Sluková and Barbora Hermannová will be hoping to gain revenge over Brazilians Carol Solberg and Maria Antontelli when the two teams meet in the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch semifinal on Saturday.
The South Americans beat the Europeans in the pool play on Wednesday but the sides will go head-to-head on the Danube Island once more and compete for a place in the final.
Carol and Maria triumphed over American qualifiers Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman in their quarterfinal in straight sets, taking just 39 minutes to win 21-14, 21-17 to book their first ever Major Series semifinal.
“We’ve been showing we are one of the most consistent teams in the world and it’s good to make it to our first semifinal in a Major,” said Maria. “We have very big goals for our team and to accomplish them we need to have the same performance in the bigger events too.”
Their win over the North Americans also made up for their earlier defeat against them on the Island.
“This American team has good national experience but they’ve just started playing internationally recently, so everybody is still trying to figure them out,” added Maria. “American teams always require us a lot of patience and sometimes it’s hard because as Brazilians we’re normally very emotional. We did a good job and while in Gstaad we just let the second set and the match slip, here we didn’t.”
After losing to the Brazilians already, Marketa is hoping she and her teammate can be on the right end of a result this time and reach the gold medal match.
“Carol and Maria are Brazilian legends, they are experienced and it will be great match,” said the defender, after she and Barbora eased past Americans Sara Hughes and Summer Ross in straight sets.
“We lost to them in the pool play in three sets. We took the first against them but went onto the lose in three. We know it will be tough, we’re playing a team who are third in the world right. But – but – we are happy with the way we are playing right now. We are in a really good place and we can’t wait to try and bring home a medal.”