Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2016 - After a disappointing setback in their first Rio 2016 Olympic match Saturday, Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst rebounded with a “dream-come-true” victory here Monday afternoon at the 12,000-seat “Coliseu on Copacabana” by defeating reigning FIVB world champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil.
After losing Saturday in the first Beach Volleyball match at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in two sets to Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri of Italy, Doppler and Horst rebounded with the “crowd silencing” win over the heavily-favored Brazilians 2-1 (23-21, 16-21, 15-13) in a 59-minute Pool A match.
It was only the Austrian’s second win in nine international meetings with Alison and Bruno, who defeated Doppler and Horst in three sets to win a gold medal July 3 at the Porec Major in Croatia. The Austrians only win over the Brazilians was in June 2015 at the St. Petersburg Grand Slam in the United States.
With the match tied 1-1, Doppler and Horst never trailed in the third and deciding set as the Austrians broken from a 4-4 tied to take a 10-6 lead. With the host country crowd behind the Brazilians, Alison and Bruno fought back to tie the set at 13s. Back-to-back faults by Bruno ended the match in the Austrians favor.
After Tuesday off, Alison and Bruno return to action Wednesday against Carambula and Ranghieri while the Austrians conclude pool play against Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter of Canada. The Italians play Binstock and Schachter in a late evening match Monday.
