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Beach volleyball 25/08/2013

Emanuel in Moscow final for the third year in a row

Moscow, Russia, August 25, 2013 – After winning the
FIVB Moscow Grand Slam in 2011 and 2012, Brazil’s Emanuel Rego reached the
final in the Russian capital for the third year in a row. But this time not
with Alison Cerutti but with young Evandro Goncalves.

The Brazilians play Latvia’s Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs in the Vodny
Stadium at 19.30 on Sunday evening. The Latvians prevented an all-Brazilian
final by defeating Ricardo Santos and Alvaro Morais Filho 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) in
the semifinal.

Smedins and Samoilovs won the first set with aggressive play, but gave away
their lead half way through the second set. At 16-19 the Brazilians seemed to
lead the match into a tiebreak, but with a service ace and a big block by
Samoilovs on Ricardo the Latvians levelled at 19-19 to claim victory in two
sets after all.

“It’s always feels great when you win, especially in matches like this”,
Samoilovs said. “At the end when we were down 17-19 and then to win 21-19. It’s
a great feeling.”

“We just had to make some good services”, Smedins added. “And we did. Then it’s
easy to play block and defence and we made four points in a row. It’s huge
against Brazil, pretty impressive.”

He is looking forward to adding another World Tour medal to their one gold and
two silvers earlier this year. “It will be another tough match, but we will
fight till the end, till the gold.”

Emanuel and Evandro beat Austria

Their opponents Emanuel and Evandro needed three sets (16-21, 21-17, 15-12)
against Alexander Horst and Lorenz Petutschnig. The Austrians reached the
semifinals much to their own surprise, since this is only their first
tournament together.

Strong serving by Horst won Austria the first set, but the Brazilians came back
strong after that. For Emanuel and Evandro Moscow was also their first event
together after the national federation decided to mix some of the teams up for
the rest of the season.

For Evandro, who won gold with Vitor Felipe at the Grand Slam in Berlin just
two weeks ago, this was hard but he was also happy he was given the opportunity
to play with his idol.

The big guy was a bit overwhelmed after reaching his second final in a row. “I
was not ready for any of these two finals, but I am happy I did it and
especially with Emanuel. It’s a good feeling and very emotional.”

The 40-year old Emanuel was proud that he reached a World Tour final with yet
another partner. “It is a great feeling. And every time I play with a new
partner I try to do something different. I try to give all my best to Evandro
and I think we did well. It was not easy to play in this cold weather, so it’s very
satisfying we won here.”

FIVB
Moscow Grand Slam Tournament Page

FIVB
Moscow Grand Slam Men’s Main Draw

FIVB
Moscow Grand Slam Women’s Main Draw

FIVB Moscow Grand Slam Twitter
Account

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