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US pair wins at beach volleyball tourney

Olympic and world champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the US defeated Germany's Helke Claasen and Antje Roeder to secure a semi-finals berth at the beach volleyball world championships on Friday.

The top four women's seeds reached the last four.

May-Treanor and Walsh are two wins short of becoming the first men's or women's team to win three consecutive world titles.

They beat Claasen and Roeder 21-10, 22-20, and will face fourth-seeded Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China in yesterday's first semi-final. The US players have a 3-1 record against the Chinese pair.

World Tour points champions Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil, seeded second, also advanced after they defeated Greece's Efthalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani 21-15, 18-21, 15-10.

Juliana and Larissa meet third-seeded Tian Jia and Wang Jie, also from China. The Brazilians lead that series 5-3, but Tian and Wang won three of the last five meetings, including the final last August in the Austrian grand slam.

Xue and Zhang prevented an all-US semi-final, defeating Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs 17-21, 21-16, 15-11.

On their part, Tian and Wang prevented an all-Brazilian semi-final, beating Salgado sisters Carolina and Maria Clara 21-15, 21-19.

On the men's side, only nine of the top 16 seeded teams reached yesterday's round of 16, including the three top-ranked teams from Brazil -- Olympic champions Emanuel and Ricardo, Pedro Cunha and Franco Neto, as well as defending world titlists Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes.
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