Upsets Abound in Men’s Beach World Championships

Of the 16 men’s matches played on Day 5 of the FIVB World Championships, four went the distance, while six featured upsets.

Atop the list of surprise results were Qatar’s Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse, who knocked off No. 2 overall seed Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs of Latvia to claim the top spot in Pool B.

“I’m so happy about that match,” Cherif said. “We knew what was before us, that’s why we came so focused, it was for first place. This was like a final for us, as the winner got first in the pool. Before the game I was watching what he (Samoilovs) liked to do, what was his best ball. So the first time he did something I watched but then the second time I knew what was happening. Our main goal is to play farther in the tournament and to have fun.”

No. 4 seed Evandro Oliveira and Andre Stein still managed to win Pool D, despite losing to Mexico’s Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros in the finale. Three teams ended up at 2-1 in the group, with Evandro/Andre taking the top spot on points ratio.

Evandro served up 11 aces and Stein chipped in 22 kills  in the match, but it was not enough to overcome 30 points by Virgen (25 kills, three blocks and an ace).

“It’s hard to explain what happened. It was all about our own mistakes in the third set,” Andre said. “We were not efficient on our side out in the end and they took advantage of it. They did not make anything special in the game, it was all on us. Now we talk, understand what went wrong and prepare for the elimination round”.

No. 12 seed Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst were not so lucky, losing out on the Pool L title after being edged by Canada’s Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk 21-19, 18-21, 15-13. Doppler/Horst still advanced to the Round of 32 as the second place team in the pool.

Seventeen errors helped the Canadian’s cause, but the Austrians made up the gap with a five-point lead in kills (34-29). Saxton put up six blocks in the match.

“We didn’t serve that well and we gave away a couple of points in the first and third sets. Horst said. “We knew how good they were and that it would be hard as it has always been between this two teams. I think they deserved to win because they made less mistakes and played a little bit better than us.”

Other upsets on the day came from Canadians Ryan Vandenburg/Aaron Nusbaum, Dutch side Christiaan Varenhorst/Maarten Van Garderen and Austrians Martin Ermarcora/Moritz Pristauz.  Varenhorst/Van Garderen earned a spot in the Round of 32 by way of their upset, which gave them second place in Pool D.

Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor avoided falling victim to an upset, edging Americans Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb in three sets, including an 18-16 set three score. Despite the loss, Gibb/Crabb finished second in Pool G and set themselves up for a pass into the Round of 32.

Top 12 Seed Results

• Jefferson Pereira/Cherif Younousse (Qatar) def. #2 Janis
• Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs (Latvia) 21-17, 21-19
• Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros (Mexico) def. #4 Evandro
• Oliveira/Andre Stein (Brazil) 21-19, 15-21, 15-10
• #6 Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Nikita Liamin (Russia) def. Dries
• Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle (Belgium) 21-16, 21-15
• #7 Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor (Poland) def. Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb (USA) 21-17, 21-23, 18-16
• #9 Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira (Spain) def. Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachler (Canada) 21-16, 24-22
• #10 Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (Netherlands) def. Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl (Poland) 21-14, 21-18
• #11 Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo (Italy) def. Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin (Russia) 21-17, 20-22, 15-13
• Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk (Canada) def. #12 Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst (Austria) 21-19, 18-21, 15-13

The four remaining pools – A, C, E and H – will be decided on Wednesday.

Pool Winners

• Jefferson/Cherif (Qatar) – Pool B
• Evandro/Andre (Brazil) – Pool D
• Krasilnikov/Liamin (Russia) – Pool F
• Losiak/Kantor (Poland) – Pool G
• Herrera/Gavira (Spain) – Pool I
• Brouwer/Meeuwsen (Netherlands) – Pool J
• Nicolai/Lupo (Italy) – Pool K
• Saxton/Schalk (Canada) – Pool L