Australian and Canadian women storm in the semifinals Down Under

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Mariafe Artacho Del Solar has the hopes of Australia at her fingertips

Beach Volleyball Major Series favorites Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar remain on course to meet in the Commonwealth Games final after both teams cruised to victory in their quarterfinal matches on Tuesday.

Australians Clancy and Del Solar, who have already won two gold medals together on the World Tour since joining force at the end of last season, breezed past Africa’s former junior champions Charlotte Nzayisenga and Denyse Mutatsimpunda of Rwanda.

“The competition really begins to hot up now,” said Clancy after the straight sets win. “We feel more and more comfortable each day we play on the Center Court. We know we had an expectation to reach this stage but we just have to focus.”

The home crowd’s favorites will face Vanuatu’s Miller Pata and Linline Matautu in the semifinal after the islanders came back from a set down to beat England’s Jessica Grimson and Victoria Palmer in a rollercoaster ride of a match earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, hot favorites and world number ones Humana-Paredes and Beach Major Series blogger Pavan continued their irrepressible form with fourth successive straight sets win.

The Canadians were too hot for Scotland’s Lynne Beattie and Melissa Coutts, running out 21-9, 21-9 winners in just 31 minutes

Standing Melissa and Sarah’s way are Cyprus’ rising stars Mariota Angelopoulou and Manolina Konstantinou.

Manolina, celebrating her 25th birthday, and Mariota, continued their impressive Games with a 2-0 win over New Zealand’s Shaunna Polley and Kelsie Wills.

Stay tuned on beachmajorseries.com to read all about the action Down Under as the tournament enters the semifinal stage on Wednesday.

Commonwealth Games semifinal line-up

Wednesday – Eastern Australian Time

7.30 pm – Women’s semifinal - Pata/Matauatu (VAN) v Clancy/Del Solar (AUS)

8.30pm – Women’s semifinal - Angelopoulou/Konstantinou (CYP) v Humana-Paredes/Pavan (CAN)