São Paulo, Brazil, September 24, 2014 — While the top two seeded men’s teams enjoyed the first round of three in pool play, five other seeds weren’t as pleased following Wednesday’s action from the double-gender US$800,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam.
The 2014 FIVB World Tour stop is being held in São Paulo through Sunday in a purpose-built venue with four competition courts at on the grounds of the Barueri Arena.
Probably the biggest surprise of the opening day of main draw play was from the youngest Brazilian team in the tournament in 29th-seeded qualification team of Gustavo Carvalhaes/Allison Cittadin who did the roaring against Latvia’s fourth-seeded reigning no. 1 team in the world, fourth-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins in straight sets, 21-19, 21-16 in just 34 minutes.
UPSET SPECIALS
Surprises weren’t finished there as teams from Canada, Chile, Germany and Italy also came into the ring swinging to pull off their own upsets.
In the Wednesday upset department, next up was Chile’s 19th-seeded cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt who stunned Brazilian duo in third-seeded Pedro Salgado/Alvaro Filho in three sets, 21-18, 13-21 and 15-13 in 48 minutes. Canada’s 23rd-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter upset Austria’s 10th-seeded Clemmens Doppler/Alexander Horst in three sets, 20-22, 21-18 and 15-11 in 50 minutes.
The other two seed-breakthroughs saw Germany’s 30th-seeded Sebastian Dollinger/Marcus Popp defeat 19th-seeded compatriots Markus Bockermann/Mischa Urbatzka, in two sets, 22-20, 2-16 in 43 minutes and Italy’s 21st-seeded brothers Paolo Ingrosso/Matteo Ingrosso upset Brazil’s 12th-seeded , in three sets, 21-14, 18-21 and 19-17 in a 61-minute struggle.
TOURNEY TIME
The last of 10 FIVB Grand Slams on the 2014 FIVB World Tour calendar, the FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam is using the FIVB format of a single-day qualification tournament on Tuesday for women and men to determine the final eight spots in each gender’s 32-team main draw tournaments, round-robin pool play began on Wednesday for both genders. It will conclude with a single-elimination bracket for the final 24 teams. The event is being played on the temporary site in the São Paulo suburb of Burueri.
Women’s and men’s single-elimination play continues on Friday to the women’s and men’s round of 16 and women’s and men’s semifinals, concluding the two bronze medal matches on Saturday.. The women’s and men’s gold medal matches and awarding ceremony closing the FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam will be held on Sunday.
CHILEAN QUOTES
After they defeated Brazil’s third-seeded Salgado/Filho, the Chileans were extremely pleased with their effort and the result of the match. Commented Marco Grimalt, “We had a tough match because Pedro and Álvaro are a rally strong team and we knew it would be hard to gain control. But we managed to stay strong since the start of the match, and we won. We are very happy.”
Cousin Esteban Grimalt was even more exciting, saying, “We are really happy with the result. We knew that it would be a hard match for us. Pedro and Álvaro have a lot of international experience, way more than us. We are used to playing against them and also we had some practice sessions together, and our coach is Brazilian. We started well during the first set. Afterwards, in the second set we couldn’t make our game. During the tiebreak we overcame them. This is just the first step, was good for our motivation that we beat a very strong team, but we need to stay on track go through the tournament beyond pool play.”
LEGENDS A TEAM AGAIN
Brazil’s iconic Olympians Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego are in their first FIVB World Tour event in five years and started their homecoming in style by winning their first pool play match Wednesday over USA’s John Mayer/Theo Brunner in three sets, 21-23, 21-14 and 15-8 in 46 minutes.
The dynamic duo both commented on their first FIVB match as a team since 2009.
Ricardo commented afterwards, “We made some errors in the beginning, because we were still getting familiar with the court and wind conditions. It was a hard match, we needed to be patient, because the Americans are always well trained. To win this first game was important for us. It will bring us tranquility in our next match.”
Brazil’s Emanuel reflected, “I am happy to spread out the beach volleyball to cities that haven’t had contact with our sport yet. This is my first time here in Barueri, and it’s been a pleasure. The first match was a bit difficult. We were adapting ourselves to the sand, to the way the other team was playing, the whole atmosphere, and we won which is what is important.
MEN’S TEAM BRAZIL
As the host nation, Brazil has six teams in the men’s main draw. Brazil had four men’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw and two more teams emerged from Tuesday’s qualification tournament. For the men, the Brazilian teams in the main draw and their record so far are Marcio Araujo/Fabio Luiz Magalhaes (0-1), Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt (1-0), Pedro Salgado/Alvaro Filho (0-1) and Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego (1-0). The men’s qualification teams from Brazil who advanced and their overall tournament records are Gustavo Carvalhaes/Allison Cittadin (2-0) and Vitor Felipe/Evandro Goncalves (0-1).