The Hague, the Netherlands, June 14, 2013 – After losing twice in pool play on Thursday world champions Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego seem to be back on track again. The Brazilians showed perseverance beating Italy’s Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai in three sets (22-20 20-22 15-11) in the first elimination round of the Transavia The Hague Grand Slam on Friday.
Alison and Emanuel regained confidence in the first set when they came from behind at a crucial moment. Italy was ready to take the set at 20-17, but some great blocks by Alison got the Italians confused and Brazil the set.
Almost the same situation happened in the second set. Italy had a set point at 20-16, Brazil came back again to 20-20, but this time Lupo and Nicolai pulled through. In the tiebreak Brazil’s hard work and experience had the upper hand: 15-11.
“They really are very experienced”, Nicolai explained their defeat. “Also the ball was moving a lot due to the wind and it was difficult to play without mistakes.”
WindEmanuel and Alison seemed to be more comfortable with the wind than Thursday when they lost both their matches. “I am sorry, but yesterday was the worst weather I ever played in. I am sorry about the tournament, the organisation has been great, but yesterday was unplayable”, Emanuel explained their poor performance the day before.
He was happy with their comeback against Italy. “Me and Alison, we lack a bit of rhythm, but you know sometimes the mind will help a little bit during the game and that is what happened in the first set.” Alison got injured at the beginning of the season and that cost them the first two events in China. “We are getting more an more into the game, but we were a bit off after seven weeks without training.”
It did not stop them to win the World Cup two weeks ago, only their second event of the season. Emanuel: “We take it step by step. It’s still important to get our rhythm. Our focus will be in Poland (World Championships) in two weeks.”
Exchanging techniques
Meanwhile they are also working on different techniques. Alison, for example, was doing some great digs against Italy. “We are trying to exchange our techniques. Alison is doing some more defence. This is a new development, because all the other teams know our game by now, we need to change something to keep winning.”
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