Graudiņa and Samoilova take shared fifth place in the “Elite 16” series tournament in Brazil

In the last “Elite 16” tournament of the season, Graudiņa/Samoilova, seeded ninth in the tournament, beat Brazilians Agata Bednarchuk and Rebecca Cavalkanti (11th) 2-0 (21:12, 21:17) in the first round of the playoffs.

In the quarterfinals, the Latvian duet lost 1-2 (20:22, 21:14, 12:15) to Chen Xue and Xin Xia of China, who are seeded fourth in the tournament.

The Latvians were slightly better in the block (6:5) and in the serve (8:5), and also accumulated more points in the whole game (53:51), while the Chinese made fewer mistakes (11:13).

For participating in the tournament in Brazil, the Latvian couple earned 760 world ranking points.

In group A, the Latvians defeated the Swiss Anuka Verger-Depres and Joana Mäder (8th) with 2-0 (21:17, 21:16), and lost to the world ranked 1-2 (19:21, 21:16, 9:15) to the Brazilian leaders Eduarda Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva (1st) and beat another Brazilian duo Talita Antunes/Tamela Coradelli (16th) 2-1 (21:17, 18:21, 15:13).

The Latvian duets Mārtiņš Pļaviņš/Kristiāns Fokerots and Līva Ēbere/Daniela Konstantinova were initially on the reserve list and would also qualify, but shortly before the start of the tournament they withdrew their applications.

At this stage, the battle for ranking points in the Olympic selection continues, which will last until June 9, 2024, with the 17 best teams being determined in the Olympic qualification ranking for both women and men.

Out of the seven “Elite 16” tournaments held this season, the Latvian duo achieved the best result in Doha, where they won the fourth place.

2023-11-25 21:07:44
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