Two newly formed teams met on Sunday morning in the final of the season’s last Grand Slam event. The Dutch giant Christiaan Varenhorst (212 cm) won his first FIVB World Tour title alongside the veteran Reinder Nummerdor as the two Dutchmen overcame the local legends Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego.
Initially scheduled in Brasilia, the country’s capital city, the Brazilian Grand Slam marked the 28th consecutive year in which the Tour visits the land of so many distinguished volleyball and beach volleyball athletes. The event in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city with nearly 12 million inhabitants, turned out to be the perfect occasion for Ricardo Alex Costa Santos and Emanuel Rego to redintegrate their international joint partnership.
The Athens 2004 gold medalists enjoyed a nearly perfect first FIVB tournament together since they parted ways back in 2009. The Brazilians, the most successful and decorated male team in the game’s history, had been on an impressive 6-0 winning run before they lost to Varenhorst-Nummerdor in straight sets (17-21, 13-21) in the final at the Barueri Arena. Ricardo-Emanuel played in two finals in the domestic 2014-2015 Banco do Brasil Beach Volleyball Tour as a preparation for their first international test in Sao Paulo, winning the opening tournament in Vitoria and finishing second in Niteroi. Sunday, however, was also a special day for a Dutch player. Christiaan Varenhorst had to cease his partnership with Jon Stiekema, with whom he won bronze at the season’s opener in Fuzhou, China, and the cooperation with the legend Reinder Nummerdor helped him achieve his first World Tour title.
“I’m young and I need someone experienced,” said Varenhorst on the decision to go for Nummerdor. “Me and my partner (Stiekema) decided our season was finished, and then I asked Reinder because I felt I still wanted to play some tournaments, I felt physically good, mentally good and I felt like there was more to achieve.”
An what an achievement that was! In only their third tournament together, following a fifth-place finish in Stare Jablonki a month ago and gold at the Azerbaijan’s Baku Masters, part of the CEV European Beach Volleyball Tour, Varenhorst-Nummerdor beat the local crowd’s favourites surprisingly easy in just more than half an hour. The 24-year old blocker Varenhorst’s mighty presence at the net decided the game for The Netherlands.
Reinder Nummerdor: “I feel amazing, I didn’t expect this, a final so dominant, we played perfect and they didn’t play their best level, but that was due to our game. We played it perfectly as we planned. My partner was on fire with the blocks and I dug some balls and everything worked out great, and then it gets easier on your side-out, there’s less pressure because you get so far ahead. I’ve played many times in Brazil, always in front of a packed house. It’s an amazing public but it can go both ways, it can be pressure for them because they are playing for their home crowd, or they can be on fire. For us it was just like a normal game, and that’s the key point, we knew we had a shot to beat them and we executed perfectly.”
“We would have liked to win, but we’re happy to get to our third final in three tournaments. It’s great to re-live all this,” said Ricardo talking about the partnership’s new era.
The bronze medal game was quite an interesting encouter between two underdogs that totally surprised some favourites and experts on their way to the semifinals. Two of the talented new Polish generation, Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor, both 22, grabbed their first World Tour medals after a hard-fought tie-break win (21-19, 18-21, 15-12) versus Canada’s Binstock-Schachter. Losiak-Kantor are already stars of youth and junior beach volleyball as they hold the 2009 European U18, the 2010 European U20, the 2010 Youth World, the 2011 European U20, the 2012 Junior World and the 2013 World U23 titles. As of 2014 the young Poles can be seen in the men’s World Tour belonging among the planet’s best and last week they reached their first-ever podium in Sao Paulo.
Despite the fourth-place result, the 33-year old Josh Binstock and the 24-year old Sam Schachter can be proud of their achievement. Saturday’s semifinal versus Varenhorst-Nummerdor was the only one they both had in their careers. Schachter, 2010 Junior World champion with Garrett May, and his experienced partner enjoy more podium finishes in the NORCECA Tour. And they weren’t Canada’s only reason for glory in Sao Paulo. Their compatriots Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton made it all the way to the quarterfinals unbeaten and even scored an impressive straight-set win against the reigning World champions for The Netherlands Brouwer-Meeuwsen in Round 2. In an all-Canadian affair in Round 3 Binstock-Schachter knocked Schalk-Saxton out of the tournament.
The results in Sao Paulo caused a reshuffling of the World Tour rankings. The absence of Dalhausser-Rosenthal and the fifth-place finish of the Latvians Samoilovs-Smedins, who, by the way, lost an epic quarterfinal match against Losiak-Kantor, marked the new Ranking leadership of the defending World Tour winners.
Pictures: FIVB
