Yachting: Team NZ oust Russians to reach semis

All4One trails Team Origin during their Louis Vuitton Trophy clash on the Waitemata Harbour yesterday. Photo / Dean Purcell

Team New Zealand have earned themselves a day off at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland, booking themselves direct passage to the semifinals with a hard-fought win against the Russian Synergy team.

With no wins in the regatta, Karol Jablonski's Russian team had to win to survive for the next stage.

They almost pulled it off, starting extremely well and leading at the first cross, but they fell victim to poor crew work on the first downwind run.

Emirates Team New Zealand took full advantage of their opponent's hiccup with their spinnaker hoist, taking the lead and from there playing it safe to secure a 15-second win.

The loss saw the Russians join French team Aleph as the first teams to be eliminated.

A further two teams will be dispatched in today's second elimination round, with the winners from the best-of-three match-ups to face Team New Zealand and Mascalzone Latino in the semifinals.

The Italians had an impressive 59-second win over Aleph yesterday, securing their direct route to the semifinals by virtue of their second-placed ranking after the round robin series.

Team Origin, Artemis, Azzurra and All4One will battle it out in today's second elimination round for the right to join the hosts and Mascalzone Latino in the semifinals beginning tomorrow.

The pairings for today's matches will be decided before racing this morning, with French/German team All4One, as the highest ranked team, granted the right to choose their opponent.

They are unlikely to choose a showdown against the Brits, after Ben Ainslie's team beat them in yesterday's opening elimination round.

Faced with the possibility of an early exit, yesterday's match was a must-win for the sixth-seeded Team Origin, and Ainslie and his crew rose to the occasion.

All4One skipper Jochen Schumann said they would wait until this morning to see what the weather was doing before deciding on their opponent for the do-or-die series.

"We will see if it gets a little lighter now - some of these teams are really strong in the heavy breeze, with good crew work and a lot of power."

ROUND TWO
* All4One will decide which team of Artemis, Azzurra and Team Origin they would like to face in the best-of-three series.
* The other two remaining teams will square off.
* The winning teams will advance through the semifinals where they will face Team New Zealand and Mascalzone Latino