The women’s semifinals of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will have an All-American duel and a battle between duos from Brazil and Australia on Saturday in Tlaxcala. The matchups were set at the conclusion of the quarterfinal round of the tournament in Mexico, on Friday.

USA’s Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes and Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss will open the semifinals at the Tlaxcala Bullring at 18:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Sunday), with Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos and Australia’s Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho meeting two hours later.

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Defending champions Duda and Ana Patrícia get to the semifinals as the only team in the entire tournament to have not dropped a single set yet. In their sixth match in Huamantla, the Brazilians topped Dutch Olympians Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) in the quarterfinals.

“The Dutch are always very difficult to play against,” Duda said. “They play very fast and move a lot. Schoon is so good, she always demands a lot from us defensively. But we were on a good day and that made things a little bit easier for us. Ana was very solid with her side out and she also got several blocks, which put us in a good spot. We've been in good form since the start of the tournament and we hope it continues for the last two days.”

Their semifinal opponents, Australians Clancy and Mariafe took bronze at the 2019 World Championships. The Tokyo Olympic silver medalists sealed their return to the semifinals with a sweep (22-20, 21-16) of Canadian Olympians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson in Apizaco.

“Every match against them is a battle and is a lot of fun,” Ana Patrícia added. “We'll rest a little bit and start looking at their film. With the event split into three cities, it's a little bit harder for us to follow every team, but we'll be ready. Our focus continues the same - we just want to play our best. There's no other way to succeed.”

Beach Volleyball World Championships - Match Schedule and Results

The two quarterfinals held in Tlaxcala ended with American duos on top. In the first of them, Cheng and Hughes gave no chance to Brazilian dark horses Tainá Bigi and Victoria Lopes, moving forward with a two-set (21-14, 21-16) win.

“It’s been quite a battle to get here and we’re thankful to be where we’re at,” Cheng reflected. “We learned a lot in all three-setters we played here this week and we hope to take those experiences to the semifinals. Every match in this tournament has been a battle and we’re looking forward to another one. We’ll focus on what we want to do and our energy and our fire.”

Prior to the meeting with the Brazilians, Cheng and Hughes had played in tie-breakers in both the Round of 32 and the Round of 16. In the quarterfinals, the two had a stronger start and took control of the match from the beginning.

“This match was very important for us as a team, so we just wanted to come out strong and aggressive and that’s what we did,” Hughes revealed. “Those intense three-setters really helped our team. We don’t take anything for granted, so we learned from them and we came out a little bit more aggressive from the start today. With that, we’re going to continue that momentum on to the semifinals.”

In the second quarterfinal match of the night in Tlaxcala, Kloth and Nuss dropped their first sets in the tournament, but still walked away with a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-8) over reigning European champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland.

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