FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Vitoria Open - The 1st Main Draw day - LIVE


VITORIA OPEN
March 15 to 20, 2016
March 16th
WOMEN and MEN MAIN DRAW

LIVE Central Court
starting at 8:00 (Rio Time)




Ricardo Santos (left) and Alvaro Filho reunite for the Vitória Open. The pair placed second at the 2013 FIVB World Championships in Poland (Photo: FIVB)

The day started here Tuesday with the reigning men’s FIVB world champions at a mid-day media conference and ended with a former world titlist winning a qualifying match in the afternoon to advance to the Main Draw of this week’s US$150,000 Vitória Open on Camburi beach at Avenue Dante Michelini.

Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt, who topped the world championship podium last July in The Hague, talked about playing at home in Vitória as the pair will be the featured team in the men’s Vitória Open “money” rounds when pool play starts Wednesday for both genders as the FIVB World Tour returns here for the first-time since 2006.

2005 WORLD CHAMPION

In the next to last match of the day on center court Tuesday, 2005 FIVB world champion and 26th-seeded Marcio Araujo and Luciano Ferreira de Paula rallied to post a 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-12) win in a 54-minute All-Brazilian qualifying match over 23rd-seeded Oscar Brandao and Andre Loyola.  The 31-year old Luciano and Marcio Araujo opened play Tuesday by ousting seventh-seeded Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi of Italy 2-1 (21-13, 19-21, 17-15) in 58 minutes.


“What a relief,” said an exhausted 42-year old Marcio Araujo after the match as Brazil qualified two men’s teams Tuesday for the Main Draw.  “It been a long day.  I really wanted to make the Main Draw as this is where my former partner Fabio (Magalhaes) works as an official in the sports ministry.  It will be good to see him along with playing here again in Vitória.”

SECOND BRAZILIAN MEN’S QUALIFIER

Saymon Barbosa and Guto Carvalhaes, who were seeded 15th in the qualifier, won the last match Tuesday over a second-seeded Latvian pair to give host Brazil five teams in Main Draw at the seventh men’s event on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour schedule.  In addition to the two qualifying teams, other Brazilian pairs in Wednesday’s Main Draw are Alison/Bruno, Ricardo/Alvaro Filho and “wild card” entrants Leonardo Gomes/Rodrigo Vieira.

After two days of pool play where the top three teams from each group will advance to the elimination phase of the Vitória Open.  Two elimination rounds will be played Friday with the men’s and women’s quarter-final matches set for Saturday.  The medal matches are scheduled for Sunday morning on Camburi Beach.
For Norwegians Janne Kongshavn and Vilde Solvoll, Monday was a depressing day as the pair feared that they might leave this South American country without any successful efforts to reach the “money” rounds at a FIVB World Tour event.

Kongshavn and Solvoll were again in an international qualifier here Tuesday where 28 pairs were battling for eight berths in this week’s US$150,000 Vitória Open, the fifth women’s tournament on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour schedule where points from each team’s finishes will count towards qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

With the men’s qualifier also being played here Tuesday on Camburi beach, Wednesday’s Main Draw schedule will feature pool play action.  Following Thursday’s group action, the top-three teams from each pool advance to elimination bracket play Friday with the quarter- and semi-final matches being played Saturday.  The medal matches for both genders will be contested Sunday where the winning teams will shared the $11,000 first-place prizes.

UNSUCCESSFUL IN MACEIO, RIO

Three weeks ago in Maceio, Kongshavn and Solvoll split a pair of qualifying matches and finished 33rd.  Last Tuesday on Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, the Norwegians lost their only preliminary match to place 41st in the first “big” event on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar.

“I was really depressed yesterday,” said the 32-year old Kongshavn.  “I just wanted to go home.  It wasn’t about staying in Brazil, it was about losing in the qualifiers and failing to advance to the Main Draw in Maceio and Rio.  I was really down and just wanted to get back to Norway.”

Tuesday mid-day, Kongshavn and Solvoll were all smiles with a “twinkle” in their eyes.  “What a relief,” said the 25-year old Solvoll.  “We are a new team and I guess we just needed sometime practicing and playing together.  Today we were very consistent and made fewer mistakes as compared to the last two events.”

Kongshavn credited her partner for “some great defensive plays.  I even had some blocks.  As the American say, the third time was the charm for our new team.  Thank goodness and what a relief.  What a difference a day makes as I was really miserable Monday.”

RUSSIAN, GERMAN VICTORIES

After posting a 2-1 (21-17, 13-21, 15-12) win in 50 minutes over 19th-seeded Daria Rudykh/Elizaveta Zayonchkovskaya of Russia, Kongshavn and Solvoll eliminated third-seeded Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner of Germany 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) in 37 minutes to reach their first FIVB World Tour Main Draw together.

Kongshavn noted that Tuesday’s effort also helped improve their preparation for the European Continental Cup competition where she and Solvoll will represent their country in a qualifying event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Stavanger, Norway (June 22-26).

“The event is three months away,” said Kongshavn, “and winning today is a confidence builder for us.  We will be underdogs the next two days in our pool matches, but at least we know we will be feeling better about ourselves after winning two very tough matches today.”

ANOTHER THIRD TIME THE CHARM

Joining the Norwegians in the “third time is the charm” for the Brazilian qualifiers was eighth-seeded Jennifer Fopma and Brittany Hochevar of the United States.  The Americans were also 1-1 in the Maceio qualifier and 0-1 in the preliminary rounds in Rio, but rebounded Tuesday with two match wins to advance to Wednesday’s opening pool play rounds.

Fopma and Hochevar opened play Tuesday morning with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-15) win in 31 minutes over 25th-seeded Josemari Alves/Vanilda Leao of Brazil before ousting ninth-seeded Nadezda Makroguzova/Olga Motrich of Russia 2-1 (22-24, 21-19, 15-9) in 53 minutes.


Other women’s qualifiers Tuesday were top-seeded Eduarda Lisboa/Elize Maia of Brazil, second-seeded Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova of the Slovak Republic, fourth-seeded Xinyi Xia/Chen Xue of China, sixth-seeded Taru Lahti/Riikka Lehtonen of Finland, seventh-seeded Yulia Abalakina/Ekaterina Syrtseva of Russia and 12th-seeded Barbara Hansel/Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria.

Men Results


 Women Results

(Source : FIVB.org)
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