The Hague, Netherlands, July 1, 2015 - Three Dutch men’s teams have qualified for the round of 32 of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015. Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst won their three matches to finish top of their pool. Michiel van Dorsten and Steven van de Velde won a breath-taking match against Russia to progress to the elimination rounds after finishing second in their pool.
Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst played on Tuesday evening in a packed stadium at the Hofvijver against Cuba (Gonzalez/Nivaldo) to become the Pool A winners. After their convincing victory in the first set (21-17), the Dutch had a hard time. Cuba won the second set 21-18 and even managed to gain a match point in the final set (14-13). Nummerdor and Varenhorst countered that to eventually win the game (16-14). By becoming the pool winners, they have secured a spot in The Hague.
Tomorrow, Nummerdor and Varenhorst will play Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin from Russia at 21.45.
Michiel van Dorsten and Steven van de Velde played a tough match in Apeldoorn against Russians Yaroslova Koshkarev / Dmitri Barsouk. The Russians took the lead by winning the first set (21-17), but the Dutch team managed to win both following sets (22-20, 19-17). Van Dorsten and Van de Velde will play this Wednesday at 19.00 in Rotterdam in the round of 32, against Mexican duo Juan Virgen / Lombardo Ontiveros.
Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen won Pool E on Monday evening. They may have drawn the toughest opponents for the round of 32. The reigning world champions play Wednesday at 20.00 in Rotterdam against Brazilian duo Alvaro Filho / Vitor Felipe. Brouwer and Meeuwsen won the World Championships final in 2013 against Alvaro Filho, who still played with the legendary Ricardo at the time.
For Wessel Keemink and Sven Vismans, the World Championships have ended, even if the Dutch pair won their match against Dmitriy Yakovlev and Alexey Kuleshov from Kazakhstan yesterday.