Mariafe Artacho / Taliqua Clancy Australia (7) def. Maria Antonelli / Carolina Salgado Brazil (4) 21-15, 19-21, 15-8 (51)
Taliqua Clancy, Australia - “We stuck together and took those moments of growth. We were disappointed after the semis, so it was good we were able to reset and find that good composure all the time and that definitely helped us. It’s absolutely amazing. If you had told me I’d be in this position at the beginning I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I’m so proud of what we’ve done and achieved. We set out some goals of what we wanted to achieve this year and I think we’ve actually reached all of them. I think we’ve put ourselves in a good position to start the Olympic qualification. We definitely want to be the best even though we’re in our first season, we want to be consistent and take them momentum all the way to Tokyo.”
Mariafe Artacho, Australia - “It feels really good. I’m just really proud of ‘T’ and our team and how we bounced back in such a quick turnaround and to play against another top team. We did a good job of being patient and fighting to the end. It could have ended up either way. We’re a fresh team and I think we’ve done really good in our first season as a team and it’s kind of a place of where we can keep going and where we can take our team. We’re really competitive and keep working hard and keep setting new goals. WE can keep growing and take the team to another level.
Carolina Salgado, Brazil - “Overall, they were the better team today. They served much better than us and that was the difference. Our serve just wasn’t good enough today.”
Maria Elisa Antonelli, Brazil - “I don’t think we played badly, but they were certainly better. I’m sad about the result but I’m fine about the way we played. We fought, we tried in every ball and tried to talk and find a way out of it, but they deserved and we need to accept that. It was our best, but it wasn’t enough. In my mind, we’re a top-four team in the world and just to be ahead of a lot of good teams, it just should make us proud.”