A week after they grabbed their first ever title at the season opener in Fuzhou, the Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo took another pair of gold medals, this time at the Shanghai PPTV Grand Slam.

In an all-European final the 2014 World Tour leaders beat the 2013 winners Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins in three sets (24-26, 21-18, 15-12). The Latvians missed the podium in Fuzhou last week by losing the bronze medal game. They did better in Shanghai and even took the opening set in the final after Daniele Lupo sent the ball long at 25-24, but the lads from the Baltic region failed to outplay the in-form Italians.

“We catch medal here every time, I don’t know what it is, but I like China and I hope to play more tournaments in China,” Paolo Nicolai said. “For us every time in China is our lucky tournament.” Nicolai was the one to serve up an ace at 14-12 in the tie-break and to bring second win in 2014 for Italy in as many tournaments.

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The bronze medals also went in European hands. A good finish of a great tournament for the best German tandem right now Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik saw them beat Pedro Salgado and Emanuel Rego from Brazil after a tie-break (15-21, 21-19, 15-10).

The initially second-seeded Brazilians Ricardo Costa Santos and Alvaro Filho had to withdraw from the Grand Slam as the defender Alvaro felt sick after arriving in Shanghai. Their bracket seed was given to the Spaniards Herrera-Gavira. Winners of this unpleasant situation were the Americans Tri Bourne and John Hyden who made it to the Main Draw. Bourne-Hyden lost the decisive qualification match to their compatriots Doherty-Lucena and wouldn’t enter the Main Draw had they not been moved up as luck losers. The young Bourne and the experienced 41-year-old Hyden did an impressive run in Shanghai and eventually made it to a ninth-place finish, defeated by Kadziola-Szalankiewicz from Poland in straight sets.

The World Tour now switches continents and moves to North America and Mexico in particular for the Puerto Vallarta Open. A lot of favorites, however, are not going to travel to the Mexican shores, so it would be a great opportunity to see some new faces on the podium.

Pictures: FIVB