Dubai: Sweden's Artemis and Italy's Azzurra will join Mascalzone Latino Audi Team and hosts Emirates Team New Zealand in today's semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Trophy being held at the Viaduct Basin in Auckland.
Artemis seemed to be peaking at the right time following their 38-second win against British challenger Team Origin, while Italian boat Azzurra overcame the French-German challenge from All4One by 20 seconds in yesterday's second round of elimination.
Given first option as hosts, Emirates Team New Zealand chose Azzurra as its opponent in today's semifinal, while Artemis will face up against Mascalzone Latino Audi Team in the second semifinal.
New format
The winner of each "first to two points" will advance to the final.
As per the format, each pair in the second elimination round was slated to race a best-of-three series. However, calm conditions on the Waitemata Harbour forced a change of plans to sudden-death single races.
