"Both of us played to our best standard in the match. I hope both of our two teams will have good performance in our next matches," said Tian after the match.

"My partner (Wang Jie) played excelently in the match. It seemed she was not for the first time at the Olympics," she added.

"I have done my best in the match. I have played and practiced beach volleyball for eight years and all that has been for the Beijing Olympics," the 24-year-old Zhang said at the press conference.

Her parter Xue Chen was sustained a waist injury when she tried to save but failed to touch the last ball.

About the loss of the third set, Zhang said, "We lack experiences and they captured our gaps and curbed our ways of offensive."

"I hope Tian and Wang would play better in the final against the United States and I hope I can give my strength to them," she said.

On the coming final against defending champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, Wang said, "They are a very strong team, both in experience and techniques. We are going to face big difficulties in the match."

"We'll do our best and we don't think about the result," she added.

(CCTV, Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2008)