The Hague, The Netherlands, July 2, 2015 - Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst validated their top-seeding in the 2015 FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball World Championships here Thursday evening by advancing to the men’s “final four” after defeating Americans Tri Bourne and John Hyden in an “Elite 8” match on the sand at The Hofvijver stadium court.
With two victories Thursday, including an afternoon win over a team from Russia, Nummerdor and Varenhorst will be the only host country team remaining in the competition along with being the only European pair still playing in the men’s portion of the world championships.
While the women play their semi-final matches Friday evening, the men will have a day off before playing semi-finals Saturday and the medal matches Sunday. Nummerdor and Varenhorst are scheduled to play 12th-seeded Evandro Goncalves and Pedro Solberg of Brazil in the first semi-final Saturday afternoon with third-seeded Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil being challenged by 15th-seeded Theo Brunner and Nick Lucena of the United States.
With a 2-0 (23-21, 23-21) win in 46 minutes over the ninth-seeded Bourne and Hyden, Nummerdor and Varenhorst improved their record to 4-0 over the American pair with three of the victories coming this season in Croatia and the United States. At both those events, the Dutch played in the “final four” with a fourth at the Porec Major and a second at the St. Petersburg Grand Slam in Florida.
Nummerdor and Varenhorst opened play Thursday by posting a 2-1 (21-17, 22-24, 15-12) win in 58 minutes over 10th-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia. Prior to that match, Bourne and Hyden defeated eighth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik of Germany 2-0 (21-19, 23-25, 15-9) in 56 minutes.
With the 2015 world championships being Nummerdor and Varenhorst’s eighth FIVB World Tour event, the Dutch were appearing in their seventh “Elite 8” match since forming their partnership last August with a fifth-place finish at the Polish Grand Slam in Stare Jablonki. Since then, Nummerdor and Varenhorst have netted two gold medals, three podium placements and five “final four” finishes together.