Mason-Harper return from brink of defeat

Nancy Mason and Tyra Harper staged a superb rally to knock Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins das Chagas and Cristine "Saka" Santanna out of the $350,000 (Dh1.29m) Dubai Open.

DUBAI // Nancy Mason and Tyra Harper staged a superb rally to knock the fifth-seeded pair of Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins das Chagas and Cristine "Saka" Santanna out of the $350,000 (Dh1.29m) Dubai Open. The 11th-seeded Americans bounced back after losing the first set 19-21 to win the next two 21-14, 17-15 and book a spot in the round of 13 of the Swatch FIVB World Tour stop.
They needed three match points to finish off the game and Mason, 37, said: "We had to really earn it. "It was a great game - a game you would normally see in the quarter-finals or semis of a tournament. "We are happy to come through and hope we can keep winning." The Brazil-born Georgian Saka admitted they played below par. "We started well, but lost form in the second set," the Sao Paulo resident, 29, said before admitting she had been food poisoned.
"I was not well," said Saka. "I think I ate something that did not go down well with me. So I was not really at my best." "We played really bad," added Rtvelo. "We didn't play well enough to win the game." Earlier, the seventh-seeded pair of Geeske Banck and Anja Gunther cruised to a comfortable 21-18, 21-11 win over the Polish pair of Monika Brzostek and Karolina Sowala. In the men's event, the two UAE pairs lost their matches in the qualifiers. Rashed Yammahi and Ahmad Zarkoh lost 21-14, 21-14 to Steve Grotowski and Gregg Weaver from Great Britain, while Ahmed al Houli and Rashed Hassan went down 21-14, 21-19 to Igor Hernandez and Jesus Villafañe of Venezuela.
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