Lucerne, Switzerland, May 14, 2015 - The “unexpected” results from Wednesday’s qualifier continued here Thursday with 11 of the 32 matches captured by lower-seeded pairs as the first two men’s Main Draw rounds were played in the inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Lucerne Open 2015 at the Lido courts on Lake Lucerne.
Adding Wednesday’s 12 seed-break-throughs in the qualifier, the total upsets for the first two days of “official” men’s competition is 23 for 56 matches. The US$150,000 Lucerne Open continues through Sunday when the gold medal matches for both men and women will be played in the second FIVB World Tour event on the 2015 calendar. The winning pairs will each share the $11,000 first-place prizes per gender.
SWISS STORY
With more than 10,000 spectators following Thursday’s 48-match schedule for both men and women, top-seeded Philip Gabathuler and Mirco Gerson of Switzerland led the host country effort with wins over teams from Brazil and Puerto Rico. The Swiss pair meets 16th-seeded Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen of Mexico for the Pool A title Friday with the winner netting a “bye” for the first-round of play in the 24-team elimination bracket.
SUCCESSFUL MAIN DRAW QUALIFIERS
Main Draw qualifying teams from Italy and Russia posted a pair of Main Draw successes each to remain unbeaten in the Lucerne Open. Marco Caminati/Alex Ranghieri, the 27th-seeded team from Italy, upset higher-seeded pairs from Canada and Germany Thursday in Pool F while 29th-seeded Dmitri Barsouk/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia posted Pool D seed-break-throughs victories over tandems from Brazil and the United States.
OTHER UNDEFEATED PAIRS
Led by eighth-seeded Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands (Pool H), seven other pairs posted 2-0 records Thursday. The reigning FIVB “Senior” Beach Volleyball World Champions, Brouwer and Meeuwsen defeated teams from Canada and Switzerland to advance to a pool-deciding match Friday against ninth-seeded Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland.
Other unbeaten teams in the Lucerne Open are third-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov of Russia (Pool C), fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain (Pool E), 10th-seeded Murat Giginoglu/Volkan Gogtepe of Turkey (Pool G), 14ht-seeded Georgios Kotsilianos/Nikos Zoupanis of Greece (Pool C) and 18th-seeded Jackson Henriquez/Jesus Villafane of Venezuela (Pool B).
After upsetting a higher-seeded tandem from Germany in the opening match Thursday, the Venezuelans scored a come-from behind win over second-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia. After dropping the first set to the Latvians 21-15, Jackson and Fane rallied to win the last two sets 21-17 and 15-13 in a 48-minute match. With the two wins, the Venezuelans clinched the Pool B title and a guaranteed ninth-place finish in the Lucerne Open.
ON TAP FRIDAY
A total of 40 matches will be played Friday with the men concluding pool play with 16 matches before playing the first round of elimination where another eight contests will be staged pitting the teams that placed second or third in each of the eight groups. The eight pool winners will advanced to the second round of elimination with a guaranteed ninth-place finish in the completion.
The women concluded pool play Thursday where teams from four German teams captured the top spot in their groups along with pairs from Canada, The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. The women will play the first two rounds in the 24-team elimination bracket for 16 total matches Friday.
FIVB WORLD TOUR & OLYMPICS
The Lucerne Open is the second event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour as the international circuit played its first match last month in Fuzhou, China. This week’s double gender FIVB World Tour event is also the second event on the qualifying schedule for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
IDLE TIME AWAITS
Following this week’s play in Switzerland, the men take a week off while the women proceed to the Czech Republic for the US$75,000 Prague Open May 20-24. The men rejoin the women on the international circuit in Moscow May 26-31 for the first of five grand slam stops on the 2015 FIVB World Tour calendar.