Alex Ranghieri and Marco Caminati became the lowest seeded qualifying team to win a FIVB World Tour gold medal. The inaugural Lucerne Open, one of the two Swiss stops on the calendar this year, was the first FIVB event for Ranghieri-Caminati.
It has become a tradition for me to write about new faces, historic medal winners, or a series of firsts in my World Tour reports. With the expansion of the elite tournament, the reshuffling of international forces, and the introduction of many new teams from emerging beach volleyball countries, it is now almost inevitable to have an increasing number of underdogs taking a piece of the pie. This past weekend made no exception. Three of the four teams in the semifinals had never made it to a medal game on Sunday before. New was the location that featured these finals as well. Lucerne celebrated its debut as a World Tour event organizer and proved to be an excellent choice. The surroundings of Lake Lucerne and the picturesque 80,000 town will also host the 2016 U21 Beach Volleyball World Championship.
Although not unfamiliar to the international beach volleyball family, the former outside attacker of the indoor Italian clubs Pallavolo Loreto and Marcegaglia Ravenna Alex Ranghieri had only achieved one fourth-place finish in the FIVB World Tour at the 2013 Berlin Grand Slam with his erstwhile partner Andrea Tomatis. Having started all the way from the qualifiers on Wednesday, Ranghieri and his new teammate Marco Caminati broke last year’s record of the Americans John Hyden and Tri Bourne as lowest seeded qualifying Tour event winners. As a matter of fact, both pairs were seeded 27th in the Main Draw of the respective tournaments, the 2014 Berlin Grand Slam for the Americans and the 2015 Lucerne Open for the Italians, but the Europeans made it as a 13th seed through the qualifiers. The 22-year-old defender Caminati is the next young talent that has gained gold medal glory early in his career in his only third appearance in the World Tour. He teamed up with Enrico Rossi at the Parana and Mangaung Opens at the end of 2014.
Unfortunately, the Lucerne Open was not ended with a spectacle. In addition, there was not even a single ball played in the final. The reigning World champions from the Netherlands Brouwer-Meeuwsen had to forfeit the gold medal match due to Robert Meeuwsen’s knee injury. After returning to the hotel to rest before the finale against the Italians, Meeuwsen felt he would risk further injury to his right knee if he continued in the competition. Part of his reasoning is due to the preparation for the start of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in their home country.
“I just did not want to risk any further injury to my right knee,” said the 27-year-old Meeuwsen, who missed most of the 2014 season due to injuries. “We were looking forward to playing, but my knee just was not feeling right. Defending our World championship title at full strength is my No.1 goal.”
Hence, the Dutchmen had to consolidate themselves with a second silver medal in as many events this season as they already lost the final at the Fuzhou Open to the Germans Böckermann-Flüggen. However, the two sets of medals helped Brouwer-Meeuwsen to top the current World Tour ranking after two rounds.
The bronze medal match turned out to be the last in the programme. It was a special occasion not only for the Swiss audience, thanks to the country’s representatives Beeler-Strasser, but also for Nico Beeler whose background brought him to the Open by chance. Currently enrolled at the University of Lucerne, the 21-year-old entered his first senior tournament on home soil. With exams just around the corner, perhaps it would have been far more difficult for the youngster to compete had it not been for the location of the Open. The Swiss team knocked out Herrera-Gavira in the quarterfinals (21-18, 25-23) in a rematch of the preliminary Pool E encounter which went in favour of the higher seeded Spaniards (13-21, 19-21). Beeler and his far more experienced partner Alexei Strasser, however, could not step on the podium in front of family members and friends as they lost to the Turkish sensation Giginoglu-Gögtepe in three sets (18-21, 21-18, 4-15).
Murat Giginoglu, 27, and Volkan Gögtepe, 28, are one of the new teams in the World Tour and the bronze-medal finish was Turkey’s best performance. Turkey also joined in the list of countries with a World Tour distinction. Both Giginoglu and Gögtepe started their professional international beach volleyball careers in 2010, but it was not until the end of 2014 when their paths crossed ways. The Lucerne Open was only the fourth joint event for the Turks who have already finished fifth in Sao Paulo and Xiamen, and ninth in Doha. Despite the total lack of success for Turkey in men’s beach volleyball, the gradual improvement the country has been showing in terms of both indoor and outdoor volleyball, plus the substantial funds local federations manage are factors that may generate more podium finishes like the one in Lucerne. Meanwhile, we have two more players whose work over the winter has gained them a great opportunity to win medals at a FIVB Open.
“We are honored to be the first team from our country to win a medal on the World Tour,” said the 27-year-old Giginoglu. “We are a new team, so we are learning a lot with each event. Today’s wins, along with the experience of playing a lot of matches against world class competitors, will really help us.”
With Olympic quotas on stake and with the first Grand Slam of the season starting in a week in Moscow, while the women’s competition continues this week already in Prague, the World Tour will finally welcome all its stars. There we will witness who has enjoyed a more fruitful winter preparation and who has recovered from injuries. Staying on the topic of injuries, Nummerdor-Varenhorst are probably the only team higher in the world ranking to miss the Russian Grand Slam due to Reinder Nummerdor’s inability to compete. The Brazilian beach volleyball tour, Circuito Banco do Brasil, is over, the “vacation” for the Americans as well, so we expect the best of these two most successful nations to arrive in Moscow.
Pictures: FIVB
