The Hague, The Netherlands, July 1, 2015 - The three men’s teams from Germany, The Netherlands and the United States that won pools on the sand at The Hofvijver stadium court earlier this week won opening elimination matches here Wednesday evening along with Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia.
In a meeting of teams that were the top-seeded pairs in their pool before the start of competition and eventually finished second in their group, the 10th-seeded Krasilnikov and Semenov posted a 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 16-14) elimination win in 58 minutes over fifth-seeded Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy.
In defeating the Italians for the second-time in a “key” FIVB World Tour event, the Russians rebounded from a two-set pool setback Tuesday in Amsterdam to an American opponent. In the first international meeting between the two teams, Krasilnikov and Semenov defeated Lupo and Nicolai in the semi-finals of the Russian Grand Slam last season. Krasilnikov and Semenov also won their next match in Moscow to net their FIVB gold medal.
With their third win in four matches in the 2015 FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball World Championships, Krasilnikov and Semenov will play top-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands. The Pool A winners, Nummerdor and Varenhorst advanced to Thursday’s schedule with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-10) win in 33 minutes over 31st-seeded Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin of Russia.
It was the Dutch’s first match against the Russian teenagers, who captured the gold medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China. Prior to Nummerdor and Varenhorst’s match, the Dutch pairs of 20th-seeded Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen and 30th-seeded Steven van de Velde/Michiel van Dorsten were eliminated by teams from Brazil and Mexico, respectively. Brouwer and Meeuwsen were the defending world champions after capturing the 2013 crown in Stare Jablonki, Poland.
Nummerdor and Varenhorst will be playing Krasilnikov and Semenov for the second-time on the FIVB World Tour as the Dutch posted a two-set win last August over the Russians in the Polish Grand Slam in Stare Jablonki. It was the first international event for the Nummerdor/Varenhorst partnership.
Also winning elimination matches Wednesday were eighth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany and ninth-seeded Tri Bourne/John Hyden of the United States. With wins over pairs from Chile and Spain, the Germans (Pool H winners) and Americans (Pool I champions) will be meeting for the second-time FIVB World Tour. Bourne and Hyden defeated Erdmann and Matysik in a three-set pool match last season in the Norwegian Grand Slam in Stavanger.
Podium placers at the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Poland, Erdmann and Matysik have now won five-straight matches in the prestigious event highlighted by the Stare Jablonki bronze medal win over Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil, the Rome 2011 world champions.
With Bourne playing in his first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, Hyden has already bettered his 33rd-place finish in the 2013 event in Poland with Nick Lucena. By winning the German Grand Slam last season in Berlin, Hyden became the oldest player to win a gold medal on the FIVB World Tour.
To set up their meeting Thursday, Erdmann and Matysik posted a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) win in 39 minutes over the 19th-seeded Grimalt cousins (Esteban and Marco) of Chile. Hyden and Bourne advanced by eliminating 35th-seeded Christian Garcia and Francisco Alfredo Marco of Spain 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) in 36 minutes.
Thursday’s world championship schedule will feature two rounds of elimination matches for both men and women. The medal matches will be July 4 for women and July 5 for men. In addition to playing for the $60,000 first-place prize money, the 2015 FIVB World Championships will also reward the country with the gold medal team a berth in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.