Chinese, Brazilian beach volleyball teams advance to semifinal in Shanghai Open

SHANGHAI, May 1 (Xinhua)-- Brazil and host China Thursday won the first two berths for the semifinals of the men's beach volleyball Shanghai Open of the FIVB World Tour here on Thursday.

Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin of China achieved their fourth straight victory Thursday afternoon by defeating ninth-seeded Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider of Switzerland to advance to the semifinals.

Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil also defeated their rivals in the fourth round of men's main draw.

Wu and Xu placed fifth here last year after losing their final two matches to teams from Switzerland and Russia.

"We are excited to achieve better success this year after disappointing our crowd last year," said 22-year-old Xu.

"As we prepare for the Beijing Olympics, our goal is to continue to improve our Olympic standing to qualify among the top six teams for the August Games," he added.

The third-seeded Araujo and Magalhaes, who captured the 2006 Shanghai Open gold medal, defeated Brazilian rivals, seventh-seeded Pedro Cunha and Franco Neto 21-19, 16-21 and 15-10 in 65 minutes on Thursday.

The men's semifinal winners will play Saturday afternoon for the28,000 U.S. dollars first-place prize. The women's main draw started Thursday with the semifinals being play Saturday and the medal matches Sunday.

The Shanghai Open is the 19th qualifying event for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the process started here in May 2007 and concludes July 20 after a 2008 World Tour stop in Marseille, France. A pair's best eight finishes at the World Tour will be considered when determining the participants for the Beijing Games.