Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy have upset the world No.1 pair to advance to the semi-finals of the women’s beach volleyball at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Aussies beat the Canadian duo of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, 21-15, 19-21, 15-12.
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They’ll now play Latvia in the semi-finals, where the Australian pair will start red-hot favourites to advance to the gold medal match.
It’s the first time an Australian duo has made the semi-finals of the women’s beach volleyball since Athens 2004, where Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson eventually finished fourth.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes had not dropped a set at the Tokyo Games prior to this match.
For Artacho del Solar, the chance to win a medal this time goes some way to making up for the disappointment of Rio in 2016, where she and partner Nicole Laird failed to win a single match.
The Australian duo also enacted some measure of revenge on the Canadians, who beat them in the gold medal playoff at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Semi-Finals: (to be played Wednesday)
Mariafe Artacho del Solar / Taliqua Clancy (Australia) vs Anastasija Kravčenoka / Tīna Graudiņa (Latvia)
Joana Heidrich / Anouk Vergé-Dépré (Switzerland) vs April Ross / Alix Klineman (USA)
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