The Hague, Netherlands, January 3, 2018 – Sean Rosenthal and Trevor Crabb were among 16 men’s teams that won their first qualification round and in doing so took a step closer to qualification for pool play at the Dela Beach Open in The Hague on Wednesday.
They will return to the indoor courts for the second qualification round on Thursday to try to earn a berth in the main draw that will run until Sunday, January 7 at the Sportcampus Zuiderpark.
Rosenthal, a Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympian and a 10-time FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medallist, has played with Crabb since the start of 2017 and this tournament is their sixth together.
They faced South Africa’s Grant Goldschmidt and Leo Williams and had to fight back to win 2-1 (12-21, 21-13, 15-9).
“It is our first win of the year so we were a little sloppy,” Rosenthal said. “They came out and were serving well and we were shanking balls everywhere. But we came back and a win is a win.
“We passed the ball better (after the first set). We were shanking balls all over the place and that is how we were knocked out of this tournament last year. We were struggling with the pass and it is a lot different for us indoor. The ball moves differently and we just had to stay with it and work through it.”
Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner are one of the teams that will join them in the second qualification round following a straightforward victory.
The Czech duo defeated Ukraine’s Iaroslav Gordieiev and Evgen Zhuravel 2-0 (21-14, 21-7) to leave them needing to beat Austria’s Thomas Kunert and Philipp Waller to reach the main draw.
They have already won gold on the World Tour, at the Montpellier 1-Star tournament in 2017, but are chasing their best result in a 4-Star tournament.
“We were expecting a really tough match, but I wouldn’t say the Ukranian guys played their best, so it was not as difficult as we expected,” Perusic said.
“Tomorrow, it is another match. We saw our opponents play before us and they played pretty good, so it will be another tough match and we will have to play at our best.
“We have to go through our opponents’ match, then it is a quick practice in the morning and then we will try to get into the main draw.”
For all the men’s Dela Beach Open qualification results, click
here