Fortaleza, Brazil, April 29, 2016 — While the names aren’t as familiar as many in their country are, host country Brazil has advanced two men’s teams to Saturday’s quarterfinals of the double-gender FIVB Fortaleza Open, the fourth event in Brazil that is part of this year’s 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
This is the fifth of eight straight events on the FIVB World Tour as the qualification window is drawing to a close for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
While five more men's teams from Brazil’s powerful arsenal lost in Friday’s Round of 16, the two youngest teams stood the tallest Friday, seizing the day as it were with two more seed breakthroughs to advance to the quarterfinals. Brazil’s men’s teams still standing are 22nd-seeded Oscar Brandao/Andre Loyola and 30th-seeded George Souto Wanderley/Joalisson Gomes. By the law of the brackets of single-elimination, the two young gun Brazilian teams will meet in a quarterfinal match Saturday.
Advancing along with the two Brazilian teams following Round of 16 victories on Friday are one team each from the Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Norway and the United States.
MEN'S 'ELITE EIGHT'
Joining Brazil’s Oscar/Andre and George/Joalisson in the ‘elite eight’ are the other six men’s quarterfinalists in the 11th men’s event on the 2016 FIVB World Tour: USA’s second-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, Mexico’s third-seeded Ontiveros Lambardo/Juan Virgen, Germany’s sixth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Chile’s seventh-seeded cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt, Israel’s 20th-seeded Sean Faiga/Ariel Hilma, and Norway’s 17th-seeded Morten Kvamsdal/Christian Sorum.
THE SKED
On Saturday, the quarterfinals and semifinals for both genders will be played. The medal matches for both genders will all be played on Sunday with the awarding ceremony following the last gold medal match concluding the event. The FIVB Fortaleza Open is being played at the purpose built stadium at Praia do Futuro in Fortaleza, site of last week’s season finale of the Brazilian National Tour.
QUARTERFINAL MATCHUPS
Friday’s only matches in Fortaleza for the men were the eight Round of 16 battles with the winner’s advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The quarterfinal matchups are USA’s second-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson meeting Germany’s sixth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Chile’s seventh-seeded cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt facing Israel’s 20th-seeded Sean Faiga/Ariel Hilman, Brazil’s 30th-seeded George Souto Wanderley/Joalisson Gomes facing off against compatriots in Brazil’s 22nd-seeded Oscar Brandao/Andre Loyola and Mexico’s third-seeded Ontiveros Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen attempt to hold off surprising ‘giant killers’ in Norway’s 17th-seeded Morten Kvamsdal/Christian Sorum.
Two of the four quarterfinalists feature teams that have met before on the FIVB World Tour and it will be the first meeting between Mexico’s Ontiveros/Virgen and Norway’s Kvamsdal/Sorum. And while the two Brazilian teams will meet for the first time on the FIVB World Tour, George, 19 and Joalisson, 25, have met Oscar, 30 and Andre, 21, several times on this year’s Brazilian National Tour.
In their series history, USA’s Gibb/Patteson has a 2-0 lead over Germany’s Ermann/Matysik with the American’s most recent win in two sets in the first elimination round of this year’s FIVB Rio Grand Slam. Chile’s E. Grimalt/M. Grimalt has a 2-1 series edge over Israel’s Faiga/Hilman although the Israelis did win the most recent meeting in three sets at this season’s FIVB Antayla Open in Turkey.
Six of the eight teams are undefeated in Fortaleza while Germany’s Erdmann/Matysik and Mexico’s Ontiveros/Virgen are both 4-1 having lost once during the pool play rounds.
ROUND OF 16 RESULTS
Friday’s only men’s matches in Fortaleza were the eight Round of 16 battles with the winner’s advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
In the first four Round of 16 matches, USA’s second-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson battled the rain and wind and held off Brazil’s 10th-seeded Gustavo Carvalhaes/Saymon Barbosa in two sets, 21-19, 23-21, Germany’s sixth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, striving to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games defeated one of top host country teams in Brazil’s fifth-seeded Vitor Felipe/Alvaro Filho, 21-19, 21-18 in 48 minutes, Chile’s seventh-seeded cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt surprisingly stunned and eliminated Brazil’s top-seeded 2016 Olympians Pedro Salgado/Evandro Goncalves, 21-12, 21-18 in 35 minutes and Norway’s ‘giant killer’ duo of 17th-seeded Morten Kvamsdal/Christian Sorum pulled off another win, this time defeating 13th-seeded Ricardo Santos/Allison Cittadin, 21-16, 23-21 in a 38-minute match.
In the second four Round of 16 matches, Israel’s 20th-seeded Sean Faiga/Ariel Hilman slipped by Greece’s 18th-seeded Georgios Kotsilianos/Nikos Zoupani in two overtime sets with the same score, 23-21, 23-21 in 47 minutes, Brazil’s 22nd-seeded Oscar Brandao/Andre Loyola hung tough against the repeated charges by Canada’s Grant O’Gorman/Sam Pedlow to win in two sets by twins scores of 21-10, 21-19 in 35 minutes, Mexico’s third-seeded Ontiveros Lambardo/Juan Virgen toppled Brazil’s 25th-seeded Luciano Ferreira/Marcio Araujo in two sets by identical scores of 21-17 and 21-17 in 42 minutes that was Marcio’s farewell FIVB World Tour match and Brazil’s 30th-seeded George Souto Wanderley/Joalisson Gomes continued their ‘upsetting ways’ by defeating Canada’s fourth-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, 21-19, 18-21 and 18-16 in 56 minutes.
The eliminated teams in the Round of 16 leave Fortaleza with official ninth place finishes and each team will split a purse of $2,000.
BRAZIL’S OSCAR/ANDRE COMMENTS
André:
“We played against the Canadians in Maceió and we knew that they are a good team. We get on court really focused. Oscar always speaks about that, we have to fight to score the first point, as it was the last. I think that we are in a good moment; we are confident and willing to go further"
Oscar:
“We had a typical beach volleyball match this morning with sun, wind, rain, cold and warm weather. We adjusted some details during the game. We did a good job in Qatar, but here we could save some energy and we only have one match. We have to think in every point, an in every match. We enjoy playing, this is great."
USA’S GIBB REMARKS
Following he and Patterson’s two-set Round of 16 victory over Brazil’s Gustavo/Saymon, USA’s to move to 4-0 in the tournament, Gibb said, “The rain and wind got pretty intense and my last serve I just saw colors, felt how far to serve, the ball hit the top of the net and rolled over, they returned Casey had another great dig and we’re moving on the quarters. It was really us against the wind and the rain today as the young Brazilians committed a lot more errors than we did. We stayed in control and did a better job of setting the ball, passing the ball and just trying to keep it out of the wind.
”Guto (Carvalhaes) made some amazing plays for them. He is really all over the court and one of the most amazing young players I have ever played against. He is going to be really good in the years to come, really, really good. We just fought today, the Brazilians and the weather, that’s just what we do. Once the wind picked up and the rain started pouring, we were in survival mode and the game plan disappeared. In those kinds of conditions you just fight for every point. Interestingly, when I was here in Fortaleza in 2007 we battled these same conditions and like this year, it isn’t every day or every match, Brazil is a beautiful country.”
FIVB FORTALEZA OPEN PURSE/POINTS
The gold medal teams at the FIVB Fortaleza Open will split $11,000 and 500 points, the silver $8,000 and 450 points, the bronze $6,000 400 points and fourth place $4,500 and 450 points.
ON THE HORIZON
With placement points for the FIVB Olympic Rankings for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games continuing, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour has resumed with events over eight straight weeks through the end of May. In all, Brazil is hosting five international events in 2016. In addition to Maceió, Rio and Vitoria, this week’s FIVB Fortaleza Open (April 26-May 1) and the Brazil events conclude with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Aug. 6-18).
The FIVB World Tour heads to Europe FIVB Fortaleza Open. Up first will be in Russia for the FIVB Sochi Open (May 3-8) followed by the FIVB Antalya Open in Turkey (May 11-15). The tour then visits the United States for the FIVB Cincinnati Open (May 17-22) and then returns to Russia for the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam (May 24-29).