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JAPANESE PAIR DELIGHT PHUKET THAILAND OPEN CROWD
Phuket, Thailand, October 31, 2007 - With weather fitting for the best of women’s international Beach Volleyball here Wednesday, the Japanese team Miwa Asao and Takemi Nishibori delighted the opening day crowd for the US$200,000 Phuket Thailand Open with a pair of qualifying victories to advance to Thursday’s “money” rounds in the last of 17 events on the 2007 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour calendar.
Seeded 13th in the 27-team qualifier that was played with a slight tropical breeze and temperatures near 30° (84°) on Karon Beach, Asao and Nishibori scored a pair of wins over teams from Malaysia and Italy to advance to only their third SWATCH Main Draw in 16 international starts this season and third in 26 career FIVB events together.
The Japanese ended Wednesday’s session on Karon Beach with a 25-23 and 24-22 win over two-time Italian Olympians and fourth-seeded Daniela Gattelli and Lucilla Perrotta, who could not take advantage of late leads in both sets before being forced into overtime by Asao and Nishibori.
“Our goal was to end the season beautifully,” said the 21-year old Asao, who is a model and television celebrity in Japan. “What is important now is winning our first-ever match in the Main Draw. It will be tough as we always face one of the world’s best team’s in the first-round. We are delighted with our play and our efforts were fueled by the excellent fan support we had today.”
Asao, who saw her popularity surge as her TV appearances began to increase last year, had her book of photographs sell over 25,000 copies since coming out last winter with sales of a DVD featuring her exceeding 20,000.
"My main job is beach volleyball," said Asao last May in an interview with Kyodo News. "I get frustrated when someone says I am not as good at beach volleyball as I am as a TV celebrity. I will go for a medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games."
As for the current Olympic qualifying process for the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, Asao and Nishibori are currently the fourth-ranked Japanese team on the list as the pair entered the Phuket Thailand Open with 278 points for their best eight SWATCH-FIVB World Tour finishes.
Previously this season, Asao and Nishibori advanced to the Main Draw in Portugal and Russia. At both events, the Japanese pair was stopped in the first-round by Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca (Espinho) and Talita Antunes/Renata Ribeiro (St. Petersburg), the top two-ranked teams from Beach Volleyball power Brazil.
“We’ll face another top-ranked team from either the United States or China tomorrow,” Nishibori added. “We played very well today, especially against a very experienced team from Italy. The key was siding out and making some big plays at the end of both sets.”
With only three of the top eight-seeded teams qualifying Wednesday, other tandems gaining Main Draw berths were top-seeded Rachel Wacholder/Tyra Turner of the United States, third-seeded Sarah Maxwell/Marie-Andree Lessard of Canada, fifth-seeded Diane Pascua/Heidi Ilustre of the Philippines, ninth-seeded Eva Hamzaoui/Deborah Giaoui of France, 10th-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler of Germany, 11th-seeded Mered de Vries/Sanne Keizer of the Netherlands and 15th-seeded Galyna Osheyko/Svitlana Baburina of Ukraine.
Thursday’s opening Main Draw schedule features 32 matches with 24 teams advancing to Friday’s 22-match schedule. After opening Saturday’s play with the final two rounds in the contender’s bracket of the double-elimination event, the Phuket Thailand Open semi-finals will be played Saturday afternoon. The final two teams compete Sunday afternoon for the gold medal and the $32,000 first-place prize.
OFFICIAL LINK:
http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp
Topic: Miwa Asao (Read 35285 times)
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