Atlanta Olympic bronze medallists Brazil will be hoping to continue their trail-blazing run when they take on world and Olympic champions Cuba in the GD Guangdong Cup 98 World Grand Prix finals, which swing into action at the Hong Kong Coliseum tomorrow night. Brazil, the 1994 and 1996 World Grand Prix champions, have been firing on all cylinders since making an inauspicious start in the first week of qualifying last month. The Brazilians finished fourth and last in the Macau leg after losing to Russia, Japan and Italy. But the past two weeks have seen a transformation that has made them almost unbeatable. The South Americans, who have been training together for just over a month after an enforced absence from the international arena, made full amends for their poor start by winning the next two qualifying legs - Fong San and Baoshan - beating both Cuba and China on their way to victory. Brazilian head coach Bernardo Rizende was optimistic that his team would overcome Cuba in tomorrow's semi-finals of the tournament, which also features crowd favourites China and defending World Grand Prix champions Russia. 'We started off badly but we have worked very hard and we're ready to show our best. We're hoping to put on a great show,' he said. 'We had only 12 days of training together before we played in Macau. Some of the girls were not playing their best, while others were injured. We lost in Macau not so much because we played badly but because Japan and Italy played good matches. If you don't play well, you can lose to anybody. 'But we have made good progress and we have practised hard.' Two-time Olympic champions Russia take on China in Saturday night's other semi-final without one of their top spikers, Ana Sanglard, who last week underwent a knee operation following a serious injury. Sanglard rammed her knee into a post during Russia's match against China in Bangkok two weeks ago. China won the match to take the Bangkok leg. 'Unfortunately, the injury was very bad and we have lost a very experienced player. We hope she'll be back soon,' said Russian coach Nikolai Karpol. China, as hosts, were exempted from qualifying but they showed they were good enough to join the world's best by finishing third in the qualifying ranking list. China's star players Sun Yue , Lai Yawen and Li Yizhi are ready for the challenge but even crowd support might not be enough for China, who last week lost to Brazil before a home crowd in Baoshan.
