Beijing, China, August 19 -- For the first time is a Chinese beach volleyball duo in the final at the Olympics and China's Tian Jia and Wang Jie will be carrying the honor.

Top-seeded Tian and Wang now face the defending champions of the United States in the beach volleyball tournament at the Beijing Olympics.

They won over their compatriots Zhang Xi and Xue Chen in the semifinal on Tuesday. They needed to play three sets before downing their fellow Chinese duo.

Tian/Wang lost the first set 22-24 and the second was not easy for them either as the two sides traded set points before Tian/Wang managed to win the set 29-27, the highest points in the beach volleyball tournament at the Beijing Olympics. The third set went in the advantage of Tian/Wang, who beat the younger duo 15-8.

Both of us two sides played to our best standard in the match. I hope both of our two teams will have good performance in the next matches," said the 27-year-old three-time Olympian Tian at a press conference after the match.

"I have done my best in the match. I have played and practiced beach volleyball for eight years and all that has been for the Beijing Olympics," the 23-year-old Zhang said. About the loss of the third set, Zhang said, "We lack experiences and they captured our gaps and curbed our ways of offensive."

Zhang and Xue, both competing at their first Olympics, will take on Brazil's Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro in the bronze medal match, also to be held on Thursday.

In another semifinal held earlier Tuesday, defending champions Walsh May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh defeated the Brazilian duo in a straight-set victory. The two sets went 21-12 and 21-14.

"We have so much respect for the Chinese team. We've got to work our own game, watch some videos and practice hard," May-Treanor said on the final with China's Tian/Wang."We just have to focus on ourselves. We know the younger girls have a huge block and great defense, so we're going to prepare for the battle out there," she said.