Five Brazilian Teams Among 16 Pool Winners in Itapema

Itapema Four-Star

• Itapema, Brazil
• May 16-18, 2018
• Schedule/Results

Pool play began on Thursday for the Itapema Four Star tournament in Brazil and it was a busy day, packed with 48 matches.

The eight pool winners, who won both of their matches, earned a pass to the Round, while the teams which lost their opening match of the tournament will face off Friday morning as the field will be trimmed

Surprise results of the day saw Brazil’s No. 8 seed Alvaro Filho/Saymon Barbosa fall to Germany’s No. 25 Nils Ehlers/ Lorenz Schumann and Spain’s No. 5 Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira stumble against German qualifiers No. 28 Philipp Bergmann/Yannick Harms.

Both must win on Friday morning to stay in the tournament.

Men’s pool winners were:

• Pool A: No. 1 Evandro Goncalves/Andre Loyola (Brazil)
• Pool B: No. 2 Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (Netherlands)
• Pool C: No. 3 Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (Poland)
• Pool D: No. 13 Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (Czech Republic)
• Pool E: No. 12 Christian Varenhorst/Jasper Bouter (Netherlands)
• Pool F: No. 6 Vitor Felipe/Guto Carvalhaes (Brazil)
• Pool G: No. 7 Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter (Canada)
• Pool H: No. 9 Anders Mol/Christian Sorum (Norway)

On the women’s side, five of the top seven seeds are safely through to the main draw second round, by way of winning their respectively pools.

Pool winners were:

• Pool A: No. 1 Barbara Seixas/Fernanda Berti (Brazil)
• Pool B: No. 2 Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan (Canada)
• Pool C: No. 3 Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (Germany)
• Pool D: No. 13 Krystina Kolocova/Michala Kvapilova (Czech Republic)
• Pool E: No. 5 Maria Antonelli/Carol Solberg (Brazil)
• Pool F: No. 11 Joana Heidrich/Anouk Verge-Depre (Switzerland)
• Pool G: No. 7 Agatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa (Brazil)
• Pool H: No. 9 Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson (Canada)

Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branaugh won their opening match, besting countrywomen Brittany Hochevar/Kelly Claes in straight sets (25-23, 21-16), but fell to Labroureur/Sude (22-20, 21-18) later in the day. Summer Ross/Sara Hughes bested Brazil’s Josi/Lili to start things off, before succumbing to Heidrich/Verge-Depre in tiebreak (19-21, 28-26, 15-10).

Emily Day/Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman lost their openers as well, with Day/Flint falling to Agatha/Duda in three sets (21-13, 19-21, 15-10) and Larsen/Stockman being edged out by Bansley/Wilkerson (25-23, 18-21, 15-9). Both pairs also lost later in the day, with Day/Flint dropping a three-setter to Keizer/Meppelink of the Netherlands despite winning the opening set (18-21, 22-20, 15-9).

Hochevar/Claes, Day/Flint and Larsen/Stockman s are slated to play Friday morning as pool play wraps up, with spots in Round 1 action on the line. A loss will send the pairs home.

Ipatema four star – men

Ipatema four star – women