Chinese Ha/Wu and Japanese Akiko/Yurika hope to end up with one step better than last year
Songkla, Thailand, April 16, 2023 – Thailand’s top seeds Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovalo set up the eagerly-awaited men’s final showdown with Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin, looking to avenge the loss at the recent Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Coolangatta, Australia to the Chinese second seeds, as Chinese Dong Jie/Wang Fan will fight it out with Japanese second seeds Akiko Hasegawa/Yurika Sakaguchi for the women’s crown in the “Est Cola” AVC Beach Tour 22nd Samila Open on Monday.
Ha and Wu
Akiko and Yurika
Excitement at the Samila Beach competition venues has reached fever pitch on Sunday when qualified teams came out in full force to keep their high hopes of advancing to the final round alive.
In the action-packed men’s quarterfinals in the Sunday morning, Chinese Ha and Wu, who last month captured the men’s title at the season’s first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event at Mount Maunganui Beach, the first-ever world-level tournament hosted by New Zealand, produced a comeback 18-21, 21-17, 15-10 win against Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakovlev/Sergey Bogatu, bronze medallists at the last April’s Beach Volleyball World Tour SMM Pak Bara Beach in Satun, Thailand.
Formidable Ha, 30, and Wu, 29, remained on course as the Chinese veterans powered past Kiwis Bradley Fuller/Alani Nicklin 21-16, 21-19 in the semifinals to book a spot in the men’s final clash, in which they will take on old foes Pithak and Poravid in the Coolangatta Futures final rematch on Monday.
Early this month, Ha and Wu claimed gold in Coolangatta, Australia following their sensational 2-0 victory against Thais Pithak and Poravid in the final showdown for their third back-to-back Futures gold after topping the podiums in Sohar, Oman and New Zealand.
Promising Pithak, 24, and Poravid, 21, who have already made the podium for the first time last December with gold medal at the Subic Bay Futures in the Philippines, struggled to beat Chinese Li Zhuoxin/Liu Chuanyong in closely-contested three-setter 18-21, 21-18, 15-9 in the quarterfinals.
Pithak and Poravid caused a sensation in the semifinals later in the afternoon when the Thai duo pulled off a surprise 21-16, 21-18 win against 2018 Asian Games bronze medallists Pribadi Danangsyah/Ramadhan Gilang from Indonesia.
In the quarterfinals earlier, Danangsyah and Gilang had a difficult encounter against Banlue…
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