Austrians miss the chance to gain revenge for Vienna

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Evandro and Andre are just one win away from another final

For the second time in two weeks, newly crowned World Champions Evandro and Andre beat Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst to book a place in the semifinals of the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone.

The last time the two teams met was in the World Championship final in Vienna but it was the same story as the rematch saw the Brazilians win in straight sets to set-up a last four meeting with European champions Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo.

“We got an early lead in the first set and that was very helpful,” said Andre afterwards. “Our short serves worked and we also got a couple of blocks and some good digs.

“The second was closer as they were serving better, but Evandro pulled out some important digs in the end and they made a few mistakes that sealed our victory.”

Evandro was just as happy. He said: “I’m very pleased. We are going through a great moment and it feels great to be on my third semifinals in the World Tour Finals in three years. If we can keep our consistency and can keep playing well we can keep moving forward in the tournament.”

For the Austrians there were mitigating circumstances with both players struggling with injuries.

“They were playing at their usual level while we couldn’t do the same since we were a little bit tired and injured,” admitted Horst. “If you are not 100 per cent fit it’s almost impossible to beat the world champions. We had our season highlight in Vienna making the final against them and now we made it to the quarterfinals here. It was a good season for us.”

Clemens added: “Of course we wanted to win but my body was not in good shape to do it, especially against the world champions.

“Both of my knees hurt a lot and I tried to keep playing but it was hard. I couldn’t jump much and it’s hard to stop a guy like Evandro in these conditions. The second set was close, but honestly, there was no chance.”