China's Wang/Yue on course for beach volleyball Fuzhou Open triumph

China's Wang Fan and Yue Yuan continue on track entering the semifinals of the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball Fuzhou Open on Saturday.

Joining Wang/Yue in the semifinals are Germany's Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude, Jamie Lyn Broder/Kristina Valjas from Canada and 2014 Fuzhou Open gold medallists Kerri Walsh/April Ross from the United States.

In the quarter-final Wang/Yue faced Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan from Canada. China took hold of the match to begin with more than a couple of Chinese points down to Wang's skill at the net. Unfazed by the Chinese support, Bansley/Pavan sent Wang/Yue flying around the court, but two big Chinese blocks ended the first set.

Multiple long rallies in the second tested both teams fitness to the limit with Pavan's great mid court gave the advantage to Canada at the halfway mark. With the score at 19-19, Yue put her serve into the net followed by a great point just over the net. China finally closed the match 2-0 (21-18, 23-21) from Wang's serve, progressing to the semifinal where they will play Laboureur/Sude.

"We had played against them once before, when we were training in the US last winter. They beat us then. Sarah Pavan is very tall, so they hold an edge at the net. But, actually, you can see that her blocking was not very effective today. I think, we found a solution to beat them," said Yue.

"Our coach asked us to play a fast game. We did exactly what he told us, and I think I played better in attacking," said Wang.

Local attention is now fully concentrated Wang/Yue as the only Chinese pair left in the competition following the unfortunate withdrawal of 2013 Fuzhou champion Xue Chen due to injury.

Despite coming close at the 2014 Parana Open, Broder/Valjas enter their first FIVB final four after beating fellow Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke in a tightly fought contest.

After a first set that was going in the direction of Broder/Valjas, Humana-Paredes/Pischke stepped up the pace in the second and took the match into a tie break. Broder/Valjas remained focused to close down the win over the higher seeded Canadian team 2-1 (21-16, 20-22, 15-13).

"They are an awesome team and we definitely have our country rivalry, but either way it was a win and I'm glad that we came out on top today. I am feeling so good, Jamie played so well. She took most of the serves that came at her and it was a battle but she pulled us through for sure," said Valjis.

"This is our first time in the semifinals ever so we are so excited to be there, we definitely feel like the underdogs, we have nothing to lose so we are going to play that way," she added.

It is also Humana-Paredes/Pischke best FIVB Open result so far and the partners were pleased about their win over American Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat in their round two match of the morning 2-0 (21-16, 21-13).

"This is our best result so far at an open and our first tournament of the year so it's been a really good start to the summer and we're really excited about how we're playing," said Humana-Paredes.

"This is our first winter where we actually trained in beach. We used to play indoor, so I think that it is really helping us so far that we' ve had such good off season training and that will help contribute to our success going forward," said Pischke.

In its third consecutive year, the Fuzhou Open is the first double-gender event of the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar with a prize purse of 150,000 U.S. dollars. The men's medal matches were held on Saturday and the women's medal matches will be held on Sunday. Endi