Montréal, Canada, July 14, 2006 - Sixth-seeded Leila Barros and Ana Paula Connelly achieved something they have not accomplished since forming their partnership 13 months ago to lead two women’s teams from Brazil here Friday to the semi-finals of the in the US$400,000 Montréal Open.

With their 21-19 and 21-19 win in 40 minutes over second-seeded Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede, Leila and Ana Paula posted their first win in seven meetings with their Brazilian rivals and also avenged a 21-15 and 21-15 setback to the same team in last week’s SWATCH-FIVB World Tour stop in France.

“We are playing better and better each week,” said Ana Paula.  “We are getting a lot of practice as compared to the other Brazilian teams since we have to play both country quota and qualifying matches before reaching the Main Draw.  It is great that we don’t have to play an elimination match before the semi-finals as we’ll get some time to rest.”

With the Montréal Open being their 19th-SWATCH-FIVB World Tour event, Leila and Ana Paula will be competing in their sixth international “final four” together.  The Brazilians have placed third the past two weeks at SWATCH stops in Norway and France where they have defeated tandems from Germany and China, respectively, for the bronze medals.

Top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca joined Leila and Ana Paula as the first two semi-final-qualifying tandems as the young Brazilians posted a pair of wins Friday over teams from China at the Stade Uniprix tennis complex in Jarry Park.

The defending Montréal Open champions, Juliana and Larissa advanced to a SWATCH-FIVB World Tour semi-final for 25th-time in 32 international starts together since forming their partnership at the start of the 2004 season with a 21-18, 15-21 and 15-7 win in 47 minutes over fourth-seeded Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China.

Juliana, who will turn 23 next week, and the 24-year old Larissa have captured the last two SWATCH gold medals in Norway and France where they defeated Adriana and Shelda in the finals.  The Brazilians also won the 2006 SWATCH season opener in Italy before placing third in the next two events in China and Greece followed by a silver medal in Switzerland.

Despite the setback, Adriana and Shelda remain in the double-elimination competition where they will play the winner of an opening contender’s bracket match Saturday afternoon between eighth-seeded Wang Lu/Ji Linjun of China and 12th-seeded Stephanie Pohl/Okka Rau of Germany.  Juliana and Larissa will play the survivor of the two elimination matches in the first semi-final Saturday evening.

Xue Chen and Zhang Xi, who captured the China stop where they posted their first of two wins this season over Juliana and Larissa in the semi-finals, dropped into the lower half of the bracket where they will meet the winner of the match between third-seeded Wang Jie/Tian Jia of China and fifth-seeded Renata Ribeiro/Talita Antunes of Brazil for a semi-final spot opposite Leila and Ana Paula.

The fourth of seven-straight double gender events on the 2006 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour, the Montréal Open also featured men’s Main Draw play Friday where Brazilians captured the first two semi-final berths after wins by Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos and Marcio Araujo/Fabio Magalhaes.

Both finals for each gender will be played Sunday afternoon where the last two teams competed for the $32,000 first-place prizes.  Following this week’s event, the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour returns to Europe for a Russian visit to St. Petersburg for the second-straight year (July 18-23).