News Beach volleyball 08/10/2014 Frenchmen Krou and Rowlandson on track at Xiamen Open Xiamen, China, October 8, 2014 – Youseff Krou andEdouard Rowlandson from France triumphed in two tough matches on the first dayof pool play at the $150,000 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Openon Wednesday. This is the third visit to China for the 2014 FIVB World Tour andthe second consecutive year the tour has been to Xiamen.Krou/Rowlandson fought hard to top Pool E on the firstday of the men’s main draw. Their morning match saw the Frenchmen up againstfellow compatriots Yannick Salvetti and Jean-Baptiste Daguerre in what turnedinto a heated affair.Krou/Rowlandson began well securing the first set21-15, before Salvetti/Daguerre turned up the pace taking the match into athird set. Krou/Rowlandson dug deep to secure their first pool win 2-1 (21-15, 20-22, 15-10). “It was a roughday because we played early against our French partners. It was a tense gameand we knew that they would never give us the game so we had to focus and that’swhat we did in the end to win it,” said Krou.Krou/Rowlandson second match was another tight clashagainst Spain’s Francisco Tomás and César Menéndez Ortego. Krou/Rowlandsonfound their confidence in the first set winning a run of points to take the set21-14, but the second set proved more of a challenge. Tomás/Menéndez pulled outan impressive performance in the second fighting every single point. With thescore at 19-19, Krou/Rowlandson missed out on two match points before closing the match 2-0 (21-14, 23-21). “Playing the Spanish team in the second match wasimportant to concentrate on our game. To win this 2-0 is a really good job forus because we have another game tomorrow morning against Germany, so we’regoing to feel pretty confident for the rest of the tournament,” saidRowlandson.The breezyconditions on Xiamen’s Guanyinshan Gold Beach did little to distract Krou/Rowlandson’s whohave been playing together since the beginning of the 2014 season. “It’s very windy of course, but we’re been traininghere for three days so we’ve been able to prepare ourselves for theseconditions so we are coping well with these conditions I think,” saidRowlandson.“We have a kind of game which is not so high, so withor without wind for us it’s quite OK,” said Krou.“We play quite hard and fast balls which don’t take thewind, so for us it doesn’t really make an enormous difference,” saidRowlandson.Brunner/Mayertop Pool CUSA’s Theodore Brunner and John Mayer top Pool C withtwo smooth performances for two straight set wins in Xiamen. The American pairspent only 57 minutes on court on day one of pool play and the wins place them in afavourable position for their final pool match against China’s Wu Jiaxin andYang Cong on Thursday.In their second match of the day Brunner/Mayer met Israel’sSean Faiga and Ariel Hilman. Faiga/Hillman showed strength in the first set, but Brunner/Mayer’sexperience quickly shone and the US pair took the match 2-0 (21-16, 21-9).“We knew it was a good team and these conditions aretough, so it felt like we played pretty well,” said Mayer.“Our aim is towin the pool and go from there so we’re in a good spot to do that,” saidBrunner. “This match actually wasn’t that bad in terms of thewind, but it’s tough, it’s just a different style of volleyball and luckily Ithink we’re both pretty well suited to it. It’s all about ball control and notmaking mistakes.”Faiga/Hilman finish the day just behind Brunner/Mayerin Pool C after defeating higher seeded Chinese pair Wu Jiaxin and Yang Cong 2-0(21-10, 21-12).Earlier in the day Brunner/Mayer met Japanesequalifiers Keisuke Shimizu and Junki Hatabe in their first ever internationalcompetition. Shimizu/Hatabe’s debut performance won the respect of theircompetitors despite losing 2-0(21-9, 21-12). “They’re good little players. The defender had anamazing dig, they are impressive and fun to watch,” said Mayer.ChineseupsetChina’s top qualifiers Ha Likejiang and Bao Jian took favouritesVolkan Gögtepeand Murat Giginoglu from Turkey by surprise on centre court. With the help ofthe Chinese crowds they beat the Turkish pair 2-0 (21-17, 21-19). An early lossto Austria’s Thomas Kunert and Christoph Dressler 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 19-17) still placesHaLikejiang/Bao J. at the top of Pool B to finish the day. With the Grand Slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tournow complete, the tour continues after Xiamen with four double-gender FIVB Openevents along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament. The tour will travel to Argentina for the FIVBParana Open (Oct. 28-Nov. 2) before heading to Doha for the men-only FIVB QatarOpen (Nov. 4-8). India will then host the double-gender FIVB Vizag Open (Nov.25-30), before the 2014 calendar comes to a close in South Africa with thedouble-gender FIVB Mangaung Open (Dec. 9-14). Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News