Top Chinese seeds Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin made an easy sail
into the semifinals of the men's beach volleyball, beating their
compatriots Zhou Shun and Li Jian at the Doha Asian Games?on
Friday.
The last time the two pairs faced each other was in Montreal,
Canada, on the FIVB World Tour, with Wu and Xu victors in two
sets.Wu and Xu, ranked sixth in the world, showed their world-class
quality this time again to take the match 21-14, 21-16 in rain.
"We have played each other a lot and we know each other's
weakness and advantages, but my partner and I have performed better
today," said Xu.
"But I'm still proud of the other Chinese team because they
still have a chance and they're strong enough to get to the final,"
said Xu.
Zhou and Li will compete for another semifinal berth against the
winner of the match between Kazakhstan duo Saulko Pave and
Zabuslayev Pavel and Japanese second seeds Asahi Kentaro and
Shiratori Katsuhiro on Saturday.
Two pairings of Kazakhstan, Vorobyev Dmitriy and Sidorenko
Alexey, and Saulko Pave and Zabuslayev Pavel, both survived from
the men's second-chance bracket by beating their Shi Lankan and
Cambodian opponents in straight sets respectively.
Ash Kentaro and Shiratori Katsuhiro of Japan stunned Indian
pairing Poothathan Mohan and Pradeep John 21-13, 21-12. However,
their team mates Nishimura Koichi and Watanabe Satoshi, the fourth
seeds of the tournament, were defeated by the Indonesian duo
SalimAgus and Supriadi Supriadi.
Another Indonesian team of Ardiyansah Andy and Darkuncoro Koko
Prasetyo also welcomed a 2-0 victory over Jabri Khalifa and Al
Subhi Badar of Oman on Friday.
For the Chinese women's team, top seeds Wang Jie and Tian Jia
have already sealed a semifinal berth, while another team Xue
Chenand Zhang Xi will fight against Japanese fourth seeds Kusuhara
Chiaki and Urata Satoko to advance to the semifinals on
Saturday.
(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2006)