If there is one conclusion we can draw from the first three Swatch-FIVB World Tour events, it would be that Americans are in hell of a shape at the beginning of the season. In their second tournament this summer Dalhausser-Rogers claimed another pair of gold medals and it is again fellow Americans they met in the Shanghai Grand Slam final last Sunday. Unlike the first place game against Fuerbringer-Lucena in Brasilia two weeks ago, this time Dalhausser-Rogers had more trouble beating compatriots Gibb-Rosenthal 2-1 (21-19, 22-24, 15-11).
The first Grand Slam of many more to come offered group games in the main draw composition. The fourteenth-seeded Gibb-Rosenthal started weakly and lost their opener to the Germans Dollinger-Windscheif. An incredible run of victories though brought them all the way up to the final, they knocked out the higher seeded Ricardo-Cunha, Herrera-Gavira and Marcio-Pedro before entering the Shanghai Center Court for the Sunday final.
“It was good to see another American team in the final and it happened in Brasilia as well,” Todd Rogers stated. “We’ve got three American teams playing at the top of the world.”
Special credits also went last weekend to the veteran Benjamin Insfran (40 years of age) and his partner Bruno Oscar Schmidt (25). The lack of World Tour points forced them to play in the Country Quota elimination round, but as it had happened already in a number of cases, guys winning a Country Quota had a blast and reached the semifinals. It was only a fourth-place finish for the Brazilians this time around, but it is not a bad achievement based on where they had launched their Chinese campaign. The bronze medals still went to Brazil – Marcio-Pedro won in three sets (16-21, 21-15, 15-13).
We stay in China this week as Beijing and its Olympic venue welcome the second Grand Slam event of 2012. We are about to find out whether the American domination will be extended, or maybe we will witness the awakening of the World Champions Emanuel-Alison who won the 2011 Beijing Grand Slam.
Pictures: FIVB
