18 March 2010 / AP, AUCKLAND
Team New Zealand and Italy’s Mascalzone Latino advanced to the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Trophy for America’s Cup sailing teams Wednesday while Aleph of France and Russia’s Synergy were knocked out in the first elimination round.
Top-seeded Team New Zealand beat No. 8 Synergy and No. 2 Mascalzone beat seventh-seeded Aleph in matchups dictated by standings at the end of an eight-team round robin. The two highest-seeded winners of Wednesday’s matches progressed directly to the semifinals and the two lowest-seeded losers were eliminated from the regatta. The four other teams will race in a second elimination round today, when the winners of each best-of-three match joining the New Zealand and Italian teams in the semifinals. Sweden’s Artemis, skippered by American Paul Cayard, will race TeamOrigin of Britain and the French-German team All4One, which had choice of opponent, will race Italy’s Azzurra. Artemis beat Azzurra and TeamOrigin beat All4One on Wednesday.
