The newly crowned world champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt have absolutely stormed the last three FIVB events. Since their unbeaten run at the World Championship in Holland, the Brazilians, reaffirming what a quality team they are, dominated the Gstaad Major and last week’s Yokohama Grand Slam.
The second largest Japanese city by population after the capital Tokyo, Yokohama last staged a men’s World Tour competition back in 1991. Predominantly a stop for the female beach volleyball stars, Yokohama marked the return of Japan on the international circuit.
The actions on the centre court on Sunday vividly showed why the Brazilians have been the team to chase in July. Alison-Bruno knocked out Austria’s Doppler-Horst in the second semifinal in straight sets (21-14, 21-18) and kept on improving in the battle for gold against the tournament’s dark horses Schalk-Saxton from Canada. Alison was very solid at the net, whereas Bruno’s mesmerizing defence skills gave Brazil crucial points to claim the pair’s third title in 2015, following a 2-0 win versus the Canadians (21-15, 21-15). The triumph also set the two “cariocas” on top of the current FIVB World Tour ranking.
“It’s been a great tournament for us. We had difficulty at first because of the time difference between Brazil and Japan but we managed to play well in the tournament. We eventually got better but we had very tough opponents here in Yokohama. We will definitely find time now to see the city and celebrate our victory,” said Bruno.
In their third year as a duo, Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton reached a World Tour event final for the first time. The greatest achievement of the North Americans prior to the Japanese Grand Slam had been a bronze-medal finish at last year’s Parana Open in Argentina. In Yokohama, Schalk-Saxton lost only to Holland’s top-seeded Nummerdor-Varenhorst in the preliminary Pool A, but went on to beating Herrera-Gavira from Spain, Nicolai-Lupo from Italy, and Semenov-Krasilnikov from Russia in the semis, including a straight-set revenge victory against Nummerdor-Varenhorst in the quarterfinals.
“We are pretty happy with our silver medal. The final was tough but Alison and Bruno played extremely well and we didn’t play as crisp. It was an amazing tournament for us and it’s a career-high finish, so we are really happy with the result,” said Schalk.
The two European teams that appeared in the semifinals had to meet for the consolation bronze medal match. Both tandems had failed to win a World Tour medal previously this year and for one of them, the Austrians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst, Yokohama happened to be a lucky place. Building up on their fourth place at the American St. Petersburg Grand Slam a month ago, Doppler-Horst stepped on the podium thanks to a 2-0 win (21-17, 21-16). The Russians played their first semifinal this season but are yet in the pursuit of their best beach volleyball. They last won a World Tour medal at the domestic Moscow Grand Slam in 2014 when Semenov-Krasilnikov adorned themselves with gold.
“It was about time because we’ve been playing such constant season so far. We’re a little bit surprised, I have to say, for our performance, but it was about time and I’m so glad that we made the semifinal and won the bronze, and now we’re going to our home European Championship,” said Doppler.
Following the Yokohama Grand Slam, the 2015 World Tour will have a three-week break before resuming in the United States with the Long Beach Grand Slam in Southern California set for 18-23 August. However, stay tuned as Volleycountry will follow this week’s European Beach Volleyball Championship in the game’s “mecca” in Klagenfurt, Austria.
*Eikou means glory in Japanese
