Tuesday marked the official start of the ninth men’s World Championships. The otherwise peaceful, touristic village of Stare Jabonki will be flourished with life this week as the best 48 teams in the world will arrive in north-east Poland with one objective only – to take depose the reigning champions from Brazil Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti.
The pool composition was released approximately two weeks ago during the smart Grand Slam in the Italian capital Rome. The serpentine system usually makes sure teams are set in balanced groups according to the World Rankings, but it is namely at events of such magnitude that preliminary seeds guarantee nothing. With only one day into the Main Draw, we already witnessed several surprises.
The organizers of each official event this year preserve the right to place a team of their choice as top-seeded. Being representatives of the home country, the best Polish duo Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel will be enjoying this privilege during the week. At least on paper the bronze medalists from The Hague Grand Slam earlier this summer have one of the easist pools. They will be accompanied by the Australians Kapa-McHugh, the Grimalt brothers from Chile and the bottom-seeded Spaniards Lario-Monfort.
The reigning beach kings Emanuel-Alison had to sweat during Day 1 as they needed a tie-break to overcome the Poles Lech-Wojtasik (21-15, 13-21, 15-9). The 22-year-old Damian Wojtasik had a great run of youth, junior and regional European events behind his back in the past year, to which he and partner Jaroslaw Lech could’ve added a win over the mighty Brazilians. It is no secret that the recent World Cup winners are still looking for their momentum this season and this heavy start might be indeed an indication that Emanuel-Alison are perhaps not ready to defend what they achieved two years ago in Rome. The Latvians Plavins-Peda ans the Italians Cecchini-P.Ingrosso will surely try and rip more flesh off of the two cariocas.
In one of the most interesting groups the fourth-seeded Gibb-Patterson had a false start on the opening day. The Americans were stunned by Popov-Samoday from Ukraine (17-21, 14-21), while Semenov-Koshkarev from Russia needed a tie-break to best Horrem-Eithun from Norway (21-23, 21-18, 15-10).
In the all-Brazilian derby in the excisting Pool E one of my medal favourites and surely the most consistently performing team this season Pedro-Bruno lost in three sets to Evandro-Vitor Felipe, with the decider going in favour of the latter 17-19. Meanwhile, the best Spanish team Herrera-Gavira did not waste much time overcoming van Dorsten-Oude Elferink from The Netherlands (21-13, 21-15).
In another countrymen encounter J.Smedins-Samoilovs beat Sorokins-T.Smedins (18-21, 21-17, 15-12). The Corrientes Grand Slam victors have a huge advantage on their side, due to which I expect them to leave their mark in Stare Jablonki. They are currently in a great shape, something to be witnessed at the end of the week, but what is more valuable is that they play without any pressure because of the little expectations they have as Latvian representative. Every set, every match they win is a bonus for the small Baltic country and with such circumstances, apart from some Latvians havinf specially arrived for the World Championship, Smedins-Samoilovs will not be a desirable opponent. First, however, they need to make it through Pool F, where we find the Dutchmen Spijkers-Varenhorst and the Austrians Mullner-Wutzl.
Three tangly days will have the four tandems in Pool J. Nicolai-Lupo did not enjoy an easy start against the Canadians Saxton-Schalk (10-21, 21-18, 15-13), whereas Julius Brink‘s absence was compensated well by Thomas Kaczmarek as he and Sebastian Fuchs went through the longest tie-break today to overcome Lucena-Hyden from the USA (17-21, 21-16, 24-22).
The last surprise of the day was set by the Venezuelans Hernandez-Fane who outsmarted Todd Rogers and Ryan Doherty (21-12, 11-21, 15-13). The Americans will need to recover quickly as the German Erdmann-Matysik are now the favourites to grab the group’s first overall place after an emphatic opening win against the Argentinians Bianchi-Del Coto (21-14, 21-11).
Contemplating on the outcome of Day 1, one could’ve easily predicted a slow start for some of the favourites, as well as an insatiable desire of the lower ranked pairs to write their names in history. It’s the World Championship after all! Without trying to be a prophet myself, I think the unexpected podium appearance, as long as we can name it surprising due to the quality growth of beach volleyball in the country, might come from Latvia. Dalhausser-Rogers proved in Rome that their partnership is starting to output results, turning around a tough semifinal situation versus Pedro-Bruno, so maybe it would be appropriate to expect an American pair in the final on Sunday. I do expect also Brazil to have a flag on the medal staircase somewhere, but honestly I would be puzzled if Emanuel-Alison make it all the way. Whether my vague prediction is going to end in the recycle bin, we will have to wait till Sunday to find out. Until then, you can gladly tune in Laola1’s live transmission from Poland because, that much I can promise you, each day will get better and better there. Probably equally plausible about the weather too.
Pictures: FIVB
