Itapema, Brazil, May 18, 2018 – Most of the favorites in the $300,000 Itapema Open kept their paces in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour four-star tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals, but some unusual tandems will also be among the top eight in Brazil.
Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger/Nico Beeler, the 19th-seeded, were one of the surprising teams qualified to the quarterfinals in Itapema. The Europeans prevailed in a thrilling duel with Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and won in three sets (21-14, 15-21, 15-13) to book their places into the next round.
It will be the first quarterfinal appearance for the young Swiss in the current season.
“We served really well and put a lot of pressure on them,” Beeler said. “We had a good start in the third set and that lead gave us some confidence to be better in the last points near the end. The season was not going so well for us, so it’s really important that this time we managed to play well and win important matches.”
Their rivals in the match that will put in play a spot in the semifinals will also be a surprising team, the one of Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, who prevailed over Mexico's Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros.
World champions Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola of Brazil are also in the quarterfinals as they upset Cubans Sergio Gonzalez and Nivaldo Diaz. Their next opponents will be Canada’s Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter, who eliminated Nico Capogrosso and Julian Azaad due to an injury of the Argentineans.
The remaining two quarterfinal matchups will have the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen vs. Brazil’s Vitor Felipe/Guto Carvalhaes and Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak vs. the Netherlands' Christiaan Varenhorst/Jasper Bouter.
Czechs and Germans succeed in long day
Czech Barbora Hermannova and her partner Marketa Slukova eliminated Brazilians Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Berti
In the women’s tournament, two of the eight quarterfinalists took the longer route and had to win all their three Friday matches, starting from the pool play conclusion. One of them was Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova, who lost their opening match in the Itapema Open.
On Friday, they defeated Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen/Riika Lehtonen and Austria’s Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schutzenhofer before they prevailed over fan favorites Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Berti in straight sets (21-19, 21-17) in a packed center court.
“It had been a while since we had last lost our first match on pool play, but I think it made us stronger,” Hermannova said. “We learned from the mistakes we made in the first match. Against Brazil, it was always tight. It wasn’t easy playing against the number one home team and the crowd, which was their third player.”
The Czech will now matchup with Canadians Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson, who advanced automatically to the quarterfinals as their opponents, Russians Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina, couldn’t play due to injury.
"They beat us in the last tournament and we are kind of hungry for some revenge,” Hermannova added.
The other six teams qualified to the quarterfinals are Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa and Maria Elisa Antonelli/Carol Solberg, Czech Republic’s Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, Germany’s Victoria Bienek/Isabel Schneider and Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch and Switzerland’s Anouk Vergé-Depré/Joana Heidrich.
Borger and Kozuch also had to go through three matches during the day and the last of them was an all-German duel with Julia Sude and Chantal Laboureur, which they needed three sets (23-21, 24-26, 15-8) to win.
“It was a long day and it was really challenging for us to manage our time to play, eat, rest and prepare for the matches,” Borger commented. “Maggie and I are both feeling really well on the sand and here in Brazil and we don’t care about the opponents, it’s just about us playing and having fun.”
The quarterfinals in both genders will happen on Saturday’s morning, while the semifinals are scheduled for the night session. The medal matches will take place on Sunday’s morning.