The Hague, Netherlands, August 27, 2010 - China and The Netherlands earned the first two women’s semi-finals berths here Friday at the US$380,000 Milner Open with six other Beach Volleyball pairs still in contention for the last two “final four” spots at the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event being played on The Hague BeachStadion courts.

Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medal winners Chen Xue and Xi Zhang of China joined Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel from the host country in winning two matches each Friday to secure their “final four” spots where the two teams will await their semi-final opponents from Saturday’s opening two elimination rounds.

The ninth-seeded Keizer and Van Iersel pulled off Friday’s biggest upset by defeating top-seeded and five-time SWATCH FIVB World Tour champions Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil 21-19 and 27-25 in 49 minutes before advancing to their second semi-final on the 2010 international circuit with a 21-16 and 21-14 win in 33 minutes over 13th-seeded Angie Akers and Tyra Turner of the United States.

Friday’s two wins marked a third-straight Beach Volleyball “final four” placement for Keizer and Van Iersel, who placed fourth two weeks ago at the European championships in Berlin before winning the Dutch national championships last weekend on The Hague BeachStadion centre court. Prior to their recent success, The Dutch pair had placed 17th and 25th in their last two SWATCH FIVB World Tour events in Austria and Poland, respectively.

In bettering their seventh-place at the 2009 Milner Open, Keizer and Van Iersel will be competing in their fourth SWATCH “final four” in 23 FIVB events together. The Dutch pair’s only podium placement on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour was a bronze medal placement at the 2009 Japan Open in Osaka where Keizer and Van Iersel defeated Akers and Turner in the third-place match.

Two-time gold medal winners on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Xue and Zhang posted their two wins Friday over pairs from Brazil. After defeating sixth-seeded Vivian Cunha and Taiana Lima of Brazil 21-16 and 21-16 in 33 minutes, the Chinese advanced to their fourth-straight FIVB semi-final and fifth in 2010 with a 19-21, 21-18 and 15-12 victory in 44 minutes over second-seeded Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes of Brazil.

Both Akers/Turner and Antonelli/Talita remain in the competition with a second opportunity to advance to the semi-finals Saturday in pursuit of the $30,000 first-place prize to be awarded after Sunday’s medal matches in the 13th of 15 women’s events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar. In addition to six women’s matches, Saturday’s schedule at the Milner Open will also feature men’s competition highlighted by the two elimination rounds and the semi-finals.