Upsets Highlight Men’s Round 1 at Haiyang Three Star

FIVB Haiyang Three Star

• Haiyang, China
• July 17-22, 2018
• Preview
• Schedule/Results

Friday brought pool play to an end at the Haiyang Three Star and also included the first elimination round, setting the table for Saturday’s Round of 16.

The eight pool play winners on each side were named on Thursday, leaving the final pool matches to round out the elimination round field.

On the men’s side, third seeded Brazilians George Wanderley/Thiago Santos Barbosa and fourth-seeded Americans Stafford Slick/Casey Patterson moved on to Saturday’s action with straight set wins.

Joining the pairs in the winner’s circle were two Austrian duos as well as teams from China, France, Germany and Thailand.

Austrians Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz took out second seeded Canadians Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton in tiebreak, while China’s No. 26 Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin also pulled off an upset, winning an extended match over top seeded countrymen Peng Gao/Yang Li (15-21, 21-13, 15-8).

The remaining four teams to advance in the knockout rounds were:

• No. 25 Alexander Huber/Christoph Dressler (Austria)
• No. 32 Romain DiGiantommaso/Jeremy Silvestre (France)
• No. 5 Alexander Walkenhorst/Sven Winter (Germany)
• No. 21 Nuttanon Inkiew/Sedtawat Padsawud (Thailand)

American qualifiers Adam Roberts/Troy Field were bested by Nuttanon/Sedtawat in Round 1. Chase Budinger/Sean Rosenthal were eliminated in pool play, falling to Finland’s Jyrki Nurminen/Santeri Siren in tiebreak (17-21, 21-13, 17-15) and China’s Yanwei Wang/Lei Li 23-21, 26-24.

Once into the women’s first round, two Chinese pairs and teams from six other countries moved on to face the pool winners. Among the winners were Canadians Nicole McNamara/Megan McNamara, who won the World University Championships title last week.

Japan’s Yui Nagata/Minori Kumada were the only team to go the distance in the elimination round, rallying past Austria’s Eva Freiberger/Valerie Teufl 27-29, 21-16, 15-8.

China’s Xinxin Wang/Jinjin Zeng fought through tiebreak to wrap up pool play, winning 22-20, 19-21, 15-11 over Japan’s Keiko Urata/Mai Tanaka, and then found continued success in straight sets against Lithuania’s Urte Andriukaityte/Irina Zobrina.

Other round 1 winners included:

• Anja Dorfler/Stephanie Wiesmeyr (Austria)
• Cao Shuting/Hang Ting (China)
• Lezana Placette/Alexia Richard (France)
• Victoria Faye Kjolberg/Ane Guro Tveit Hjortland (Norway)
• Rumpaipruet Numwong/Khanittha Hongpak (Thailand)

Americans Bree Scarbrough/Aurora Davis were knocked out of the competition by Numwong/Hongpak 21-18, 23-21.