Rotterdam, the Netherlands, July 2, 2015 – Pedro Solberg and Evandro Goncalves eliminated fellow Brazilians Alvaro Filho and Vitor Felipe in three sets (21-14, 14-21, 15-8) in the quarterfinal in Rotterdam Thursday evening to move into the semifinals of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.
In the final match at the Katendrecht peninsula both teams treated the audience to beach volleyball of a high level, with spectacular rallies, big blocks and impressive attacks.
After losing the second set to their former partners Pedro and Evandro took an early lead in the tiebreak. With an ace and some big blocks by Evandro they took a decisive leap from 10-7 to 14-7 and at their second match point Evandro scored the winner with one of his impressive jump serves.
“We are really happy to have made the semi-finals”, Pedro said. “This is our first semi-final in the World Championships. We hope to play in the same atmosphere we played in today, because then we know we can play well. The atmosphere today was great. We were really happy on court!"
Stavanger champions Pedro and Evandro weren’t that happy earlier on in the tournament. They barely made it out of the pool phase with only one win, but have been slowly growing into the tournament. After defeating Poland on Wednesday they eliminated Cuba’s Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez (21-19, 19-21, 15-11) Thursday afternoon.
“We have never stopped believing in ourselves. You know, this is our third semifinal in five events”, Pedro said, referring to their gold medal in Stavanger and silver in Moscow recently. “And now we go to The Hague for the win.”
The 29-year old praised his partner, the 2,10 meter tall Evandro. “Evandro was serving so well in the first and third set and he helped me with my side-out, setting the ball perfectly.”
He also complimented the other team, his former partner Alvaro and Vitor Felipe, who booked some successes with Evandro in the 2013 and 2014 season.
Pedro: "Alvaro and Vitor are a very good team with one of the best ball controls of the world. We knew it would not be easy because we played against them a lot of times already. This match was a big battle.”
For Vitor Felipe and Alvaro, who knocked out reigning world champions Brouwer and Meeuwsen on Wednesday and Mexico’s Ontiveros/Virgen (21-19, 19-21, 20-18) on Thursday, the Dutch adventure has ended.
"It's always tough to play against these guys”, said Alvaro, who won silver with Ricardo Santos at the World Champs in 2013. “Us Brazilians know each other well from the national tour, so we knew it was going to be a hard match to play. In the end they just played better than us."