In the women’s Paf Open final China faced USA. Last years Paf Open winners, Chen Xue and Xi Zhang from China, repeated their victory from last year beating the americans, Paf Open rookies and Olympic winners, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh

The Chinese team ruled the match in the beginning and they won the first set clearly 21-16. But in the second set the roles were different, like the weather, the wind and the rain stopped. May/Walsh led the second set at the technical timeout 12-9 and kept the lead until the end of the set, winning it 21-17.

Xi Zhang/Xue get the flying start for the third set. They had the lead 4-1 in the beginning and then 7-3, which was too much for Americans. By Xi Zhang successful digs and killing serves, the Chinese team won the third set and the whole tournament 15-9.

- Åland is very lucky place for us, told Xi and Chen. This was our first tournament win for this season.

- The young chinese girls have very good serve and Xi went for every ball. We lost our chances in the first set already in the beginning, but we could turn the second set for us, remembered Misty May-Treanor. Even if it was raining and windy in the beginning, the weather has been great in here, she continues.

- Everything has been so great in here: food, accommodation, weather and especially the sand, defines Kerri Walsh.

The bronze medal match was very tight game between two Brazilian teams, Juliana Da Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca, first seeded in the tournament, and Talita Antunes with Maria Antonelli [3]. Juliana and Larissa won the first set with two points 21-19. The second set was also very tight, even if Talita/Maria had 17-13 lead. Finally they won the set 21-18 and took the match to the third set. The final set was even until the end. Talita and Maria had several match balls, but Larissa Franca cut the set with ace, dig and placing the ball into the empty place 21-19.

Final   Xue-Zhang Xi CHN [2] May-Treanor-Walsh USA [4] 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-9)

Bronze medal Larissa-Juliana BRA [1] Talita-Antonelli BRA [3] 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 21-19)

Marcio Araujo, 37 years and partner Benjamin, 39 years took their first World Tour gold medal since they reunited earlier this summer after six years apart. The Paf Open final was over after one set due to an unfortunate injury.

The bronze medal match was less of anticlimax and much more of perfect match. The third seed Polish Fijalek-Prudel gave the number one ranked team in the world, Emanuel-Alison, a hour long battle for the podium placement. The youngsters from Poland have an impressive season so far, eight top five finishes this year and two times in finals, and it’s just a question of time when they will take their first World Tour win.

Both Emanuel-Alison and fourth ranked Fijalek-Prudel showed that their world rankings are no coincidences. The audience in Åland witnessed a great game between two great teams. Brazilians took the first set, 26-24, the Poles came back winning the second and the third was even all the way. Finally giant Alison ended the game with a huge block and Emanuel/Alison took their eighth podium placement this year.

Fijalek-Prudel POL [3] Emanuel-Alison BRA [2] 1-2 (24-26, 21-16, 14-16)

The final started off in the best possible way. The sun was shining, the beachvolley was great, the stands were filled and the atmosphere was perfect. Dalhausser/Rogers took the lead from the beginning but the Brazilians chased them all the way and started a comeback and the score was 18-15, advantage USA, when Todd Rogers took a timeout and limped off to the players stand. Directly after the timeout it was clear that Todd Rogers knee affected his game a lot. Dalhausser/Rogers struggled to stay in the game, Phil attacked on two and a limping Todd Rogers did his best, but it was obvious he couldn’t move nearly as smooth as he usually does. At 21-21 Todd decided to give in to the pain and the match was over. Marcio Araujo-Benjamin thereby won the game 2-0 (21-21, 21-0) and the players, especially injured Rogers, got ovations from the stands.

The final at least ended in a friendly way and at the press conference the players agreed on what they think of Paf Open.

- It’s a great event. I like the new setup of the arena and everything here is close and convenient, the hotel is nice and the fans are great, Phil Dalhausser said.

- The same! Congratulations to the organizers for a great event, Marcio Araujo replied.

Sweden won the second Finnkamp with the total score 5 wins against Finland’s 3 wins. The crowd really enjoyed the matches and the atmosphere in the stands here in Åland was just great.

The crowd on the center court created just the kind of atmosphere one could expect during prestigous matches between the neighbouring countries Sweden and Finland, and it inspired the players on court.

- It’s not that hard to battle for every ball with a crowd like this, Steve Gunnarsson said after the match.

Together with Hannes Brinkborg he took and impressive win over the finnish men Piippo/Nurminen, 2-0 ( 21-15, 21-13).

- We had no idea how our finnish opponents would play, so we just went in with the attitude to perform as good as possible. Hannes dug many balls and did it really good. My body fells great now, Steve Gunnarsson continued.

In the women’s game Sweden was represented by this years queen of Swedish Beach Tour, Karin Lundqvist, in pair with Tora Hansson. For Finland on the other side of the net, the Nyström sisters, who been both up and down this season and finished 25th here in Paf Open.

Despite it was Lundqvist/Hansson first game together they played really tight and well matched. Tora Hansson impressed with her blocking and she took several blocking points, most of them in the second set.

- It’s so nice to get those blocks, it got better and better throughout the whole game. It feels great to win here in Åland with the support from the crowd. I’m really proud to get to play with Karin Lundqvist, she is very easy to play with, Tora Hansson said.

- We decided to enjoy each ball. We couldn’t finish the swedish summer in better way, Karin Lundqvist said.

Lundqvist /Hansson – Nyström/Nyström 2-0 (21-13, 21-13)

The youth games in Finnkampen were all tight games. Five out of six went to three sets and the last game for the day, U23 went all the way to 19-17 in the final set. The Norman brothers came back from being down 8-12 to win the game and the Finnkamp of 2011.

The finnish girls turned out to be stronger than the swedish and the other way around for the boys. The U18 boys game was another three set thriller which ended with a swedish win.

-It’s great, it’s always fun to beat Finland. We played well in the end and it was an even and tough game. We met them once before and we won that game too, with a small margin, Wilhelm Nilsson said after the game.

Results Finnkampen youth:
U18 Katju Puskala/Hanna Salomäki FIN-Emma Larsson/Thea Thulin SWE 2-0 (21-14, 21-12)
U18 Tuomas Stranius/Ville-Erik Tarkiainen FIN-Wilhelm Nilsson/Johan Skoogh SWE 1-2 (21-15, 14-21, 13-15)
U20 Taru Lahti/Hanna Salomäki FIN-Kristina Thurin/Susanna Thurin SWE 2-1 (21-16, 11-21, 15-9)
U20 Niklas Seppänen/Tommi Siirilä FIN-Christofer Lewin/Rasmus Dahlberg SWE 1-2 (21-17, 18-21, 11-15)
U23 Eveliina Koljonen/Taija Pekkarinen FIN-Tadva Yoken/Sara Hellgren SWE 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 15-9)
U23 Saku Viljamaa/Kirill Borichev FIN-Mårten Norman/Manne Norman SWE 1-2 (21-18, 16-21, 17-19)

The final day of Paf Open starts off with Finland vs. Sweden matches before the men’s finals. The youngest teams, U18 will start the matches, then U20  and under 23 years old will end the prestigous matches.

The youth players will play on the courts 1 and 2. Senior matches are played on the center court, men at 11.30 and women 12.30. Last year the matches were played only with men and women and the both wins were taken by Sweden.

The teams and starting times:

U18 10:00

Katju Puskala/Hanna Salomäki – Emma Larsson/Thea Thulin

Tuomas Stranius/Ville-Erik Tarkiainen – Wilhelm Nilsson/Johan Skoogh

U20 11:00

Taru Lahti/Hanna Salomäki – Kristina Thurin/Susanna Thurin

Niklas Seppänen/Tommi Siirilä –  Christofer Lewin / Rasmus Dahlberg

U23 13:30

Eveliina Koljonen/Taija Pekkarinen – Tadva Yoken/Sara Hellgren

Saku Viljamaa/Kirill Borichev –  Mårten Norman/Manne Norman

Women 1230: Emilia Nyström/Erika Nyström – Karin Lundqvist/Tora Hansson

Men 11:30: Jyrki Nurminen/Pekka Piippo – Hannes Brinkborg/Stefan Gunnarsson

The national head coach of Finland Kai Liukkonen foresees tight matches, but believes in a finnish win.

- I think Finland will win the youth matches, but men and women are harder. Nyströms wants to have at least one win this year and here is the place to take it, says Liukkonen.

- I have no experience how good the youngsters are, but I guess that the adult matches will be even, says Simon Dahl the Sports director of Paf Open.

The men’s final will be played on Sunday. American Olympic winners, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser will play against Brazilian Marcio Araujo with his partner Benjamin Insfran. Three of the players in the final are the same as last year, but for Benjamin it’s the first Paf Open final.

Rogers and Dalhausser played in their semifinal against the young Polish team Fijalek/Prudel very tightly. In the three setter Americans had to do their best to win the match. In the first set Fijalek and Prudel had good lead, but Rogers and Dalhausser took the set win 21-19. In the second set Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel controlled the ball better and won 21-18. Third setter was a thrill, Todd and Phil led 12-8, but then the Polish serve was too difficult, suddenly it was 12-12. At this point Todd Rogers decided to take the win and took a couple of perfect digs and the set won 15-12.

In the Brazilian semifinal Emanuel Rego/Alison Cerrutti [2] and Benjamin Insfran/Marcio Araujo [5] played for the other final place. Benjamin and Marcio were strong from the beginning and they really wanted to win the World Champions. With Marcio’s awesome defences and digs they stopped Emanuel’s and Alison’s attacks. The only 2-0-win (21-18, 21-15) in the last four matches of the day, was taken by Marcio/Benjamin.

Emanuel-Alison BRA [2] Marcio Araujo-Benjamin BRA [5] 0-2 (18-21, 15-21)

Rogers-Dalhausser USA [1] Fijalek-Prudel POL [3] 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-12)

Final Sunday 21.8 15.30

Bronze medal Sunday 21.8. 14.00

Follow the center court action live on Paf.com