Maceió, Brazil, February 24, 2016 - A men’s qualifying pair from host Brazil posted a pair of Main Draw wins here Wednesday during the opening two pool play rounds of the $150,000 Maceió Open while the top three seeded teams won as expected at the FIVB World Tour event.
Quick links•
Maceio Open website•
Qualification results - Men•
Qualification results - Women•
Main draw results - Men•
Main draw results - WomenSaymon Barbosa and Gustavo Carvalhaes, who are playing in their fourth FIVB World Tour event, defeated tandems from Russia and Italy to advance to a possible group-topping finish in Pool E as the 22-year old Brazilians play 21st-seeded Sebastian Fuchs and Stefan Windscheif of Germany with the winner earning a first-round bye for Friday’s elimination round.
Seeded 28th in the fifth men’s event on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar, Saymon and Gusto eliminated a team from Israel Tuesday to advance to Wednesday’s Main Draw where the South American pair upset fifth-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov of Russia 2-1 (21-15, 18-21, 15-8) in 46 minutes and the 12th-seeded Ingrosso twins (Matteo/Paolo) of Italy 210 (18-21, 21-18, 15-10) in 52 minutes.
Saymon bumps the MikasaNext up for the young Brazilians are 21st-seeded Sebastian Fuchs and Stefan Windscheif of Germany, who lost to the Russians and defeated the Italians Thursday. Saymon and Gusto can claim the pool title outright by defeating the Germans. If Fuchs and Windscheif win and Krasilnikov/Semenov defeat the Ingrossos, the tie between the three teams will be decided by point-ratio. Point ratio among all four teams in the group will also be used to break a two-way tie at the top of the pool.
Playing their second match in the early evening against the Ingrossos, Saymon and Gusto were aided with a near-capacity grandstand of Brazilians. “It helps to have the support of the fans in a close match,” said Saymon. “It gives you a lot of energy, especially when you are tiring.”
Saymon and Gusto will be looking for their second-straight medal finish at a FIVB World Tour event in Brazil. Last September at the Rio Open on Copacabana, Saymon and Gusto placed third by upsetting reigning FIVB world championships and compatriots Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in the bronze medal match.
“Our goal is to reach Sunday’s medal round,” said Gusto, “but that will not be easy. I think we surprised a lot of teams in Rio last year as we were playing in only our third FIVB World Tour event. It was great to reach the podium in Rio and that is always our goal.”
Winning two matches as expected Wednesday were pool favorites Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg of Brazil, Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena of the United States, Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk of Canada and Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri of Italy. Evandro and Pedro are playing in their first international event since being named last September to fill one of the two men’s berths for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The top-seeded Evandro and Pedro defeated teams from Venezuela and Latvia to open play Wednesday with the second win under the lights on center court. The Brazilians will play 16th-seeded Theo Brunner and Sean Rosenthal of the United States for the Pool A crown.
The Italian and American teams are currently ranked among the top-five tandems on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour rankings. Carambula and Ranghieri posted a pair of three-set wins over teams from Russia and Switzerland Wednesday and will play 10th-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter of Canada for the Pool G title Thursday. The Italians’ third-place ranking on the international tour was highlighted by a gold medal finish last October in Antalya, Turkey.
Dalhausser and Lucena defeated a team from Brazil in Wednesday morning’s first match on center court with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) win in 36 minutes over 31st-seeded Thiago Santos Barbosa/George Wanderley Brazil. The Americans continued their winning ways over a South American pair by defeating a Venezuelan pair in the afternoon. The 15th-seeded Polish pair of Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak will challenge Dalhausser and Lucena for the Pool B title Thursday.
The third-seeded Saxton and Schalk defeated a Canadian rival in their first match Wednesday followed by a win over a Brazilian pair. Saxton and Schalk meet 14th-seeded Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson of France in their final Pool C match Thursday.
The Maceió Open concludes with the medal matches for both women and men where the gold medal teams will share the $11,000 first-place prize. The women’s 2015-2016 international calendar started last October with stops in Mexico and Turkey.
Following the Maceió Open, the FIVB World Tour will take a week off before resuming competition March 8-13 on famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the first grand slam event on the 2015-2016 international Beach Volleyball calendar with an $800,000 purse.