Ten men’s tandems all 2-0 in pool play at FIVB Paraná Open main draw

Paraná, Argentina, October 30, 2014 — Coming from all over the globe, 10 men’s teams from eight countries are undefeated after the first two of three rounds of round robin pool play at this week’s double-gender US$150,000 FIVB Paraná Open.

Back in Argentina for the sixth time and in Paraná for just the first time, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stop is being held in the city until Sunday in a purpose-built venue at Balneario Thompson located in the Entre Rios province on the eastern shore of the Paraná River.

The unbeaten men’s tandems after the first two pool play matches are two teams each from host country Argentina and Canada along with single duos from Austria, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Israel and Venezuela. Friday will see the final round of men’s pool play for the 32-main draw teams to determine the field of 24 for single elimination play. On Saturday men’s round of 24, round of 16 and quarterfinals will all be played ending with the final two under the lights on the Paraná stadium court to set stage for Sunday’s men’s semifinals medal matches, and awarding ceremony. Three women’s elimination rounds will also be held Friday with the women’s semifinals, medal matches and awarding ceremony will all be held on Saturday.

UNBEATEN MEN
The 10 men’s teams advancing to Thursday’s final round of pool play undefeated at 2-0  are led by Argentina’s 10th-seeded Ian Mehamed/Nicolas Capogrosso, Argentina’s 22nd-seeded Leo Aveiro/Santiago Aulisi, Canada’s top-seeded Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton, Canada’s second-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, along with Austria’s third-seeded Robin Seidl/Alexander Huber, Chile’s fourth-seeded Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt, Germany’s 12th-seeded Bennet Poniewaz/David Poniewaz, Brazil’s 14th-seeded Bruno De Paula/Hevaldo Sabino, Israel’s 15th-seeded Sean Faiga/Ariel Hilman and Venezuela’s Carlos Rangel/Jhonatan Golindano.

After tiebreakers were implemented, the two unbeaten teams that are second in their respective pools are Israel’s Faiga/Hilman and Austria’s Seidl/Huber.

TEAM ARGENTINA
As the host nation, Argentina has six total men’s in the main draw, and two are leading their respective pools with a combined 6-6 recordFor the men, the Argentine teams pre-seeded into the main draw are Santiago Aulisi/Leandro Aveiro, Pablo Bianchi/Julian Azaad and Ian Mehamed/Nicolas Capogrosso. Additionally, Argentina three men’s team that advanced from the qualification tournament on Wednesday to the main draw were Quiroga/Del Coto, Ronconi/ Verzzali and Yacob/Leon. All six teams from Argentina are all guaranteed three pool play matches each through tomorrow days as the South American Country continues to develop its international beach volley program.

ARGENTINIAN YOUTH OLYMPIANS
Fresh from winning the bronze medal at the 2014 Nanzing Youth Olympic Games in August, Argentina’s Leo Aveiro/Santiago Aulisi pulled off two break-through wins during the first day of pool play.

In their first match Thursday, Argentina’s Aveiro/Aulisi won a semifinal rematch from Nanzing over Venezuela’s 11th-seeded Jackson Henriquez/Leon Colina, 21-19, 21-15 in 34 minutes.  In their second match of the day, Argentina’s Aveiro/Aulisi held off the comeback attempt to secure their second seed-breakthrough of the day over Austria’s sixth-seeded Tobias Winter/Lorenz Ptutschnig in three crowd-pleasing sets on the stadium court, 23-21, 13-21, 15-12 in 52 minutes.

After winning their first FIVB World Tour match against the Venezuelan team that defeated them in the Nanjing semis, Argentina’s Aveiro/Aulisi we pleased to comment.

Argentine’s Aveiro spoke first, saying, “For us, we have double happiness. First of all, we are happy because we beat the Venezuela that had beaten us in the Youth Olympics semifinals in August. It was important for us. Start winning, representing our country at home, that all makes us very happy and now we won’t to continue playing good beach volleyball.”

Argentina’s Aulisi said, “Ths win was very special for us and we take pride to be in a FIVB Open tournament in our country. We need more experience, because we are in growth time and still have a lot to learn, but we are trying to keep moving forward.  This was a great step in that forward-moving direction.

THEY SAID IT
Cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt enjoyed their two victories and spoke about it afterwards.

Marco Grimalt spoke first, saying, “Undoubtedly the target is to get the best result as possible approaching the end of the season. We are playing at a good level in a demanding tournament, which is only one step below an FIVB Grand Slam.”

Esteban Grimalt added, “It depends on us to achieve our goals. We are starting our careers and we have to improve the mental factor. We are working every day but we have to significantly improve in pressure situations. Today’s matches we played well with focus and good enthusiasm and it showed.”

FIVB PURSE, TOURNEY TOTALS
The FIVB Paraná Open is the 312th FIVB men’s tournament since its first event in 1987 and the 276th FIVB women’s tournament since FIVB began women’s competitions in 1992. Gold medal winning teams in each gender in FIVB Paraná Open will split $11,000, silver will receive $8,000, bronze medalists get $6,000 and the fourth place finishers will earn $4,500 of the $150,000 total purse.

ARGENTINE HISTORY
Men’s champion duo in Corrientes last year was Latvia’s new duo of Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins while women’s champion team was Sophie van Gestal/Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands.

Through the 2013 event, Argentina has hosted a total of five FIVB World Tour events (4 men, 1 women) with three events held in Mar del Plata. In the men’s totals, Brazil has five medals, followed by Argentina with two and with one men’s medal each in Argentina are Australia, Italy, Switzerland and the USA.

After one FIVB World Tour women’s event held in Argentina through 2013, Brazil leads the medal parade with two total medals followed by the Netherlands with one.