Maria Antonelli / Carolina Salgado Brazil (4) def. Chantal Laboureur / Julia Sude Germany (1) 23-21, 21-17 (0:43)
Carolina Salgado, Brazil - “I think the key was to keep focused at all times, even in the bad moments, and stay together not matter what. We helped each other a lot and kept believing until the end. We had our eyes wide open because we knew how good they were. We know our opponents will have to play another match, so we just take our time to rest and take advantage of it, but make sure we keep our focus.”
Maria Antonelli, Brazil - “These matches are very demanding, and we are exhausted because we gave everything we have. I’m very proud of what we did, but now a new tournament starts for us. We need to put everything that happened behind us, take the good things and prepare for more battles.”
Julia Sude, Germany - “The announcer said we are through, so we can play in the quarterfinals by one or two points because of the point ratio. We still don’t have it on paper, but I think they calculated the right way. I hope so. This year is very tough, everyone can beat everyone. You have to wake up and feel good to beat the other team. It’s a high level and it’s fun to watch and fun to play.”
Chantal Laboureur, Germany - “We had some easy points that we missed and that really got on my nerves, like one free ball that I put too close to the net. They played really brave, Carol was attacking almost all the time. It was really tough to hold the line. They did a good sideout, we did a good sideout and then again, the small points make the difference and if you lose focus for one second the other team takes the chance and goes further. Before the game it was a very tricky situation because we knew if we win we can top the pool, if we lose there could be a chance we could be out so the difference between first and fourth was only again the small points. We said from the beginning every point counts. I also want to see it written on paper.”