The defending title holders Brouwer-Meeuwsen got knocked out of the World Championship last evening and left beach volleyball’s most longed-for crown vacant. The Dutchmen looked devastated at the end of the Round of 32 game against the Brazilians Alvaro Filho and Vitor Felipe and were surely disappointed that they have to pack their bags so early.
In a very entertaining and dynamic tournament so far, the Round of 32, the first elimination phase after the preliminary group stage, offered a lot of interesting results. Previously, 72 matches in 12 preliminary groups played between Friday and Tuesday sieved the best 32 teams that would fight for the right to hold the title for the next two years, until 2017. And although most outcomes went as expected, we did not go without surprises. Certain less-known teams made the headlines on several occasions and even survived the first knock-out battles.
It was a sweet moment for Alvaro Filho, the 2013 silver medallist alongside the legendary Ricardo Alex Costa Santos, when he and his partner Vitor Felipe closed the match against the home favourites Brouwer-Meeuwsen in straight sets (21-19, 25-23). None of the playing minutes were easy for the two Brazilians, but Alvaro must have felt satisfied in the end for the revenge he has now taken for the painful defeat back in 2013. Moreover, the win came out of the blue because Alvaro Filho-Vitor Felipe barely made it out of Pool K, having succumbed to Gibb-Patterson and Spain’s Marco-Garcia. It was thanks to the sets won in these defeats (twice 1-2) that the Brazilians finished with a set ratio good enough to grant them a position in the next round.
“I laughed when I saw the draw. Sometimes destiny is great”, said Alvaro. “But it’s really not about the opponent in beach volleyball. It’s how you play yourself. And I would not call this win revenge, because I respect them too much. Vitor Felipe’s serve was the key in winning. We talked tactics before the game, we knew the serve would be really important to put pressure on them, because we are a short team and they are so tall. And Vitor had some great serves at the end of the second set.”
With one of the Dutch favourites heading home, the other more serious title contender, the pair Nummerdor-Varenhorst, still keeps chances of making it all the way. The Dutchmen are playing superbly in The Hague, with four wins out of four games till now. In the last match of yesterday’s programme, late in the evening, the top-seeded Dutch team showed very convincing beach volleyball against one of the youngest and most talented teams there are – the Russians Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin. The two players, 18 and 19 years of age respectively, won the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and have already appeared in the FIVB World Tour. The Russians kept the drama alive in the first set, which they eventually lost 19-21, but surrendered to Christiaan Varenhorst’s stuff blocks in the second set.
The time has come to talk about the surprises in the Netherlands. Three teams stunned the international status quo and demonstrated very attractive and successful game. And while two of these three pairs we have seen on the World Tour, the third one from Cuba had been a real mystery before they arrived in Holland. The 25-year-old Sergio Reynaldo Gonzalez Bayard and the 21-year-old Nivaldo Nadhir Diaz Gomez had never entered any of the international competitions before, with the exception of a few entries at the North American tour. Thus, the abilities of the two Cubans were an enigma to their opponents. Coming from a set behind, Gonzalez-Nivaldo overcame Kadziola-Szalankiewicz from Poland in their first game in The Hague and pushed Nummerdor-Varenhorst to the limits (17-21, 21-18, 14-16). The Cubans went on their splendid Dutch adventure in Rotterdam where they eliminated one of Europe’s medal hopes Herrera-Gavira from Spain in straight sets (21-19, 22-20). Their next challenge is today when they face the fluctuating Brazilians Pedro-Evandro.
Among the pre-championship favourites, Pedro Salgado and Evandro Goncalves suffered in Pool L. They were unlucky to meet one of the dark horses – Mexico’s Virgen-Ontiveros. Bronze medallists from the Mexican Open in Puerto Vallarta last year, Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros are on a roll these days, having finished fifth at the recent St. Petersburg Grand Slam and scoring their fourth consecutive win at the 2015 World Championship. The Mexicans handled the physically impressive Pedro and Evandro in two sets (21-18, 21-11), with the second one a true lecture, and are yet to drop a set. They topped Pool L with a perfect record and knocked out the Dutch pair van Dorsten-van de Velde yesterday to find a place in the Round of 16 where they will meet another Brazilian tandem, Alvaro Filho-Vitor Felipe.
Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse upturned the form book to knock out Ryan Doherty and John Mayer out of the competition on Wednesday. The Qatari pair is the third underdog on Dutch soil that we would like to emphasize on. They have appeared at the Fuzhou and the Lucerne Opens this year already, but what they are doing this week must be considered their major breakthrough. Representing Qatar, a nation not famous for its sports history, Jefferson-Cherif made a sensation in Pool C as they beat Austria’s Doppler-Horst in the opening game (14-21, 21-15, 15-13). A defeat to Australia’s Court-Schumann made them squeeze through as one of the eight best third-placed teams, but the Qatari will play today again (the next challenge is Switzerland’s Gabathuler-Gerson) following the win against Doherty-Mayer (21-18, 21-14). Doherty-Mayer are the only yankees to leave the championship as their other compatriots are still in the race for the crown.
We cannot help but notice the disappointing performance of European teams. Usually dominant at the World Tour, European participants are underperforming at the most important event of the year. Brazil and USA are the big winners so far, with Brazil keeping all their four teams after the Round of 32, whereas USA still have three. Mexico, Canada, Qatar, Australia, and Cuba complete the non-European list for today. Nummerdor-Varenhorst are still the two names that scare their opponents and probably have the biggest chances of advancing further. They will face Russia’s Semenov-Krasilnikov who outcame Italy’s Nicolai-Lupo after an epic three-setter last night. Vyacheslav Krasilnikov twisted his thumb during the second set, but yet helped his teammate to reach the next phase. The reigning bronze medallists from Stare Jablonki, Germany’s Erdmann-Matysik, are also alive after four days and will have a difficult task against USA’s Hyden-Bourne.
