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SHANGHAI asics gel nimbus 17 uk , May 2 (Xinhua) -- Reigning world champion Xue Chen and her teenager partner Xia Xinyi crashed out of the US$800,000 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Shanghai Grand Slam after dropping two matches in a row here on Friday.


The ninth-seeded XueXia lost to the Netherlands' Madelein MeppelinkMarleen Van Iersel 2-1 (21-12, 16-21, 15-13) in a last round pool H match before being knocked out by Summer RossEmily Day of the United States 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) Friday afternoon in the first round of the women's single elimination stage.


Trailing by one set asics gel kayano 20 mens uk , XueXia fought back to take an narrow lead most of the way in the second set against RossDay, but the Americans steadily pulled it back at 18-all before running off four of the last five points to secure the victory and a berth in the women's top 16 round.


""We know we have a lot to improve,"" said Xue, who started to pair up with Xia at the end of last season after winning the gold medal with Zhang Xi at the World Championships in Poland in July. ""The bronze medal in Fuzhou was kind of surprise to me, we have to work really hard to play well together.""


The 17-year-old Xia was struggling with her reception in the two losses asics gel kayano 20 uk , especially the match against MeppelinkVan Iersel. ""I think we have a lot of service pressure that was in our advantage, so we played a clean game,"" said Van Iersel.


Despite the losses, Xue was confident in the future of the new combination. ""We are a new team and we got a long way to go,"" Xue said. ""Xia has improved very quickly and we just need more time and more games.""


Australian qualifiers Nicole Artacho and Mariafe Laird secured their best finish in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour as they rallied past Russia's Evgenia UkolovaMaria Prokopeva 2-1 (13-21 asics gel saga sale , 22-20, 15-9) Friday morning for their fifth straight win in the Shanghai Grand Slam and a spot in the women's top 16 round.


With two victories in the qualification tournament and three more in the round robin pool play, ArtachoLaird, who were seeded 31st in the 32-team Main Draw, earned a bye in the first round of the knock-out stage as the surprising winners of pool B over Germany's second seeds Laura LudwigKira Walkenhorst.


Artacho attributed the come-from-behind victory to her teammate. ""It was tough asics gel saga uk , you know, but Nicky was so supportive, she really pushed me alone,"" she said. ""I was really slow at the beginning of it. Obviously Nicky was great teammate right there, she did really well.""


Having made sure a ninth finish in their first Grand Slam event together onitsuka tiger mexico 66 uk , the dark horses remained to be calm and cool. ""It's pretty exciting, but it's just taking one step at a time for us at the moment,"" said Laird. ""It's exciting to have that guaranteed, but we still got one game to go. We'll take it game by game, point by point.""


Top seeds Talita Da Rocha AntunesTaiana Lima and sixth seeds Agatha BednarczukBarbara