Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2015 - It is European teams on top and Brazilians on the bottom half of the men’s bracket at the US$800,000 Moscow Grand Slam after pairs Germany and Spain advanced to the semi-finals here Saturday mid-day along with two tandems from the South American country.
With the Moscow Grand Slam the first “big” event on the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, ninth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany and 12th-seeded Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira of Spain won the first two quarter-final matches Saturday at the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Center.
With the Germans and Spaniards meeting in the first semi-final, the next “final four” match will be an All-Brazilian affair with second-seeded Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt being challenged by 10th-seeded Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Salgado, who are playing in their first-ever FIVB World Tour event together.
Erdmann and Matysik defeated 16th-seeded compatriots Alexander Walkenhorst and Stefan Windscheif 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) in a 37-minute match. The Spaniards followed with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) win in 38 minutes over 17th-seeded Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst of Austria. The two teams will be meeting for a third-time on the FIVB World Tour with Spanish winning a 2013 match in Brazil and the Germans victorious in 2014 Shanghai.
Saturday’s third quarter-final match was a “classic” with Evandro and Pedro posting a 2-1 (21-17, 17-21, 21-19) victory over Emanuel and Ricardo in 59 minutes. The winners are playing in their first-ever FIVB World Tour event together while Emanuel and Ricardo resumed their partnership at the end of last season and were playing in their 90th event.
Alison and Bruno posted a 2-0 win (21-14, 21-14) win in 34 minutes over 14th-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands, the reigning FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball world champions. It was the third win for the Brazilians in the series with the Dutch as Alison and Bruno defeated Brouwer and Meeuwsen in last year’s Moscow Grand Slam.
The first “big” event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour, the US$800,000 Moscow Grand Slam continues through Sunday when the medal matches for both men and women will be played. After this week’s event, the FIVB World Tour’s first “Major Series” stops are set for Croatia (Poreč, June 1-7) and Norway (Stavanger, June 8-14) before international circuit crosses the Atlantic for the final world championship “tune up” in the United States for the St. Petersburg Grand Slam in Florida (June 15-21).