Kristin Lynn Hildebrand
The match between the USA and Serbia promises to be a closely contested one, though the Americans have a slight advantage over the European champions having won four of their five matches in the World Grand Prix including a 3-2 victory in this year’s preliminary round.
However, the USA will have to start strong if they do not want a repeat result of Wednesday’s match against Brazil. The statistics show that all World Grand Prix Finals encounters between USA and Serbia have gone to the side that has taken the first set in the match.
The action is set to hot up as the second match of the day pits world No. 4 Italy against world No. 5 China, who is yet to a lose a match in this year’s tournament.
The two countries have met on 18 previous occasions in the World Grand Prix with Italy holding a 10-8 advantage. Overall Italy have won seven of their last nine matches against China in the World Grand Prix. If past experience is anything to go by, volleyball fans can expect yet another epic confrontation as five of the last six World Grand Prix matches between these teams, all since 2007, have been decided in five sets, except for Italy’s 3-0 win over China in the 2010 Finals.
In the third match of the day, world No. 3 Japan and world No. 2, Brazil will face each other for the 25th time in the World Grand Prix. Brazil holds a commanding 30-4 edge in these head-to-head match-ups with a 96-20 advantage in sets won. Nine of the 34 matches have come in the Finals, with Brazil winning eight of those.
Having won its first match of the Finals against the USA on Wednesday, Brazil has won nine of its 10 matches in the tournament so far, with its only loss this year being a 3-1 set back at the hands of Bulgaria in the preliminary round.
To read more articles from this competition click on World Grand Prix 2013.
Check out the WoV Community profile of USA.
