Brazil & USA pairs to stage a fierce SWATCH semi-final

(BEIJING, June 14) --We surely expect a close match to be staged in front of the main railway station in Berlin between top-seeded Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the US and second-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil on Saturday as the SWATCH smart Grand Slam women's semi-final takes place.

This will be the 14th SWATCH FIVB World Tour competition between the US and Brazilian tandems since March 2004, with two of the previous 13 matches being SWATCH finals set in Berlin in 2005 and 2007. Juliana and Larissa have won three of the 13 matches.

"I am glad we got the two very close wins today," FIVB website quoted the 29-year-old Walsh as saying after the quarter-final wins over teams of China and Brazil, "Since this is our first international event this season, I think we had some troubles adjusting to the ball. We did not have a good rhythm to our games today, especially with our passing. Both opponents played very well and we make some big plays at the end of both matches to win."

May-Treanor and Walsh took the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, besides winning three times at the SWATCH-FIVB World Championships. They beat sixth-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang of China 21-16, 15-21 and 15-12 in 49 minutes earlier Friday, before claiming another victory 21-12, 16-21 and 15-11 in 49 minutes over 26th-seeded Maria Antonelli and Vanilda Le