Brazil's newly-paired duo Ana Paula Connelly/Larissa Franca claimed a breath-taking victory over Russian rivals Monday following their first win in the preliminaries.

Ana/Larissa beat Russian Alexandra Shiryaeva/Natalya Uryadova 19-21, 21-12, 15-13 in a nail-biting three-set match.

The Brazilians, who overcame an earlier deficit, tracked down every Russian shot and pounded spikes that the Russian duo couldn't handle.

The dogged Russians struggled in front of a roaring crowd before eventually dropping the tie-breaker.

"We change our serves, from jump serves to float serves and boost our offence, which works," Ana said after the match.

She added that it was only the second match for her and Larissa and they started to make improvement.

Ana, 36, replaced Juliana Felisberta for the Beijing Games as Juliana is suffering from sharp pains on her right knee and is not able to play. She has played indoor volleyball for Brazil's national team for many years, and was one of the players who won the bronze medal in Atlanta Olympics.

Ana/Larissa survived a scare against a Georgian pair in their first preliminaries before securing a 2-1 victory.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2008)