Taiana and Carol Horta will face Borger/Kozuch for a spot in the semifinals

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Carol Horta is hustling through exhaustion in the Fort Lauderdale Major

The week has been long, but very productive for Taiana Lima and Carol Horta. Joining forces only for the Fort Lauderdale Major, the Brazilians have progressed from the country-quota to the quarter-finals with six wins in seven matches in Florida.

The last of them ended a World Tour 13-match winning streak for Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho, as the duo have topped the podium in both the three-start event in Qinzhou in October and the two-star tournament in Sydney in November. The Brazilians were trailing 17-14 in the second set, but stepped up in the final points to win 21-17, 21-19.

“They were hitting on two during the entire match and we were struggling to defend it, but we knew that if we stuck to our strategy we would eventually succeed and that’s exactly what happened in the last two points,” Taiana said.

The Brazilians have been playing since Monday and can’t deny the effects of all the matches on their bodies, but they are not thinking about stopping now.

“We are tired, but being here is so amazing for us that we forget about being tired or about any pain we could be feeling when we enter the court”, Carol added. “It’s exhausting, but also so much pleasant being among the best in the world.”

The Brazilians will now meet Germany’s Karla Borger Margareta Kozuch, who prevailed in two sets (21-10, 21-16) over Canada’s Taylor Pischke and Jamie Broder. The winner of this matchup, which will happen tonight at the Red Bull Beach Arena, will play either Canada’s Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes or USA’s Brooke Sweat/Summer Ross in the semifinals.

The Canadians rolled past China’s Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia in two sets (21-18, 21-14) while the Sweat and Ross won the all-American duel with Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes also in two sets (21-15, 21-13).

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