Juliana Silva is ready to reinvent herself on the beach, even at 34 years old, and she knows that such effort must involve her new partner, Andressa Ramalho. A bronze medalist in London 2012, a World Champion in 2011, and 8 times FIVB World Tour Champion, Juliana is ready to mentor Andressa and have her reach new heights. The climb is steep, and Juliana has expressed that instead of focusing on long term goals, both players will take it one step at a time.
In their first two tournaments, the four-star event in Xiamen and the three-star in Mersin, they failed to make it past the qualifications, but on their third attempt, at the three-star Lucerne event, Juliana and Andressa made the main draw line-up (FIVB.com):
“It feels really good. We played hard to qualify for the main draw. This is the first experience for Andressa to represent Brazil abroad. She is really excited to go to the main draw for the first time. We worked a lot after two disappointing results, which we want to forget about. It is a gift for us to make the main draw and I hope we achieve a good result, which for us is to play well. Right now all we are thinking about is to have a great performance here, in Lucerne. After that we think about the next tournament and so on. After I injured my knee in 2008, I learned my lesson to think about the week, about the month, about the year, but not to plan for longer than that.
Andressa is very talented. I believe in her a lot. My mission is to help her rise to a high level in the future. I am doing it for my country and for her. We want to get close to the best teams in Brazil and in the world, but it is a long way to get there. We have to work a lot and train a lot, but we believe in it. All we think about is improving and learning from our mistakes. We believe in each other and every single day we discuss what to do to play better together. She accepts what I say and I accept what she says.”
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