Apeldoorn, Netherlands, June 27, 2015 – Two upset wins and a couple more close calls brought the curtain up for the pool play in Apeldoorn during Saturday’s first day of action in the $1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015.
Featuring the world’s best players, this global biannual tournament is being anchored in The Hague, with pool play and three elimination rounds also being played in Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam.
A total of 48 women’s and 48 men’s teams have been split into 12 four-team pools for three rounds of pool play with plenty of promising matchups in 144 group matches among 12, four-team pools with three pools per gender in each city.
FORMAT
With a total of 96 tandems (48 in each gender), two-person teams will be competing for part of a $1 million purse as the Netherlands hosts an FIVB international event for the sixth consecutive year. Anchored in The Hague round-robin Pool Play will be played in The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam along with the first three rounds of elimination play for the 32 teams remaining per gender following three rounds of pool play. There will be three pools (12 teams) from each gender in each city for the three rounds of pool play and elimination rounds through the quarterfinals. The quarterfinal winners in each gender will move to The Hague after Friday’s matches. The women’s semifinals and medal matches will be held on July 4and the men’s semifinals and medal matches will be played on July 5.
PURSE
The gold medal winning teams in each gender will earn $70,000 while the silver medalists will take home $52,000 with the bronze medalists netting $40,000 with $30,000 going to the fourth place finishers.
VENUE
All matches in Apeldoorn will be played on Market Square. A purpose-built stadium with a capacity of 2,000 seats has been erected on the atmospheric square in the city centre. Market Square is overlooked by the modern town hall and is surrounded by shops, bars and restaurants.
APELDOORN UPSETS
While the four women’s pool play matches Saturday were all won in two sets by the higher-seeded teams, two significant men’s matches saw upset winners.
Enjoying the supportive capacity crowd at the Market Square stadium in their home country, Netherlands’ 30th-seeded Michael van Dorsten/Steven van de Velde came from behind to upend Chile’s 19th-seeded cousins Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt in three sets, 16-21, 21-19 and 15-13 in 51 minutes.
In the second seed breakthrough win, Qatar’s 27th-seeded Jefferson Santos Pereira/Cherif Younousse lost the first set and then came roaring back to win the match in three sets, 14-21, 21-15 and 15-13 in 46 minutes.
Relishing the moment in front of home country fans, friends and families, van Dorsten reflected happily afterwards, “We're feeling fantastic of course, we had a really exciting match we lost the first set. We're happy that we could perform at our best own level, it finally came out on display. We just gave it all our energy and it showed off finally in the second set, so we're just happy with the win now.
None of the teams in each match had met before in a FIVB event.
APELDOORN CLOSE CALL
Getting a bit of a wake-up call in their opening pool play match, USA’s 14th-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, who won the gold medal 10 days ago at the FIVB St. Petersburg Grand Slam, were pushed to the limit before winning in three sets over Spain’s Francisco Marco/Christian Garcia, 18-21, 22-20 and 15-13 in 58 minutes, the longest match of the day in Apeldoorn.
It was the first meeting between the two teams when they met for the first time at the FIVB Rome Grand Slam in 2013 where Gibb/Patterson won as well in two sets.
As Gibb said afterwards, “The Spanish had us well scouted and were playing really, really good against us but we put together just enough to squeeze by them. You always want to win your first match in pool play for a lot of reasons, but this is the FIVB World Championships so there will also be people trying to knock us off. In the FIVB anybody is capable of winning and anybody is capable of losing as well.”
APELDOORN COMEBACK
Returning to action for the first time since she re-injured her shoulder in late May, USA’s third-seeded, three-time FIVB World Champion Kerri Walsh Jennings and her teammate April Ross thrilled the few USA fans in the partisan crowd of Dutch faithful, and scrambled their way to a two-set win over Netherlands’ 46th-seeded Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema, 21-13, 22-20 in 33 minutes in the final match of the day on the Apeldoorn Market Square stadium.
Following the match Walsh commented, “The Dutch girls really played hard and made some great plays and made us work for this victory. This is the FIVB World Championships and even if a team like the Dutch doesn’t play that often on the FIVB World Tour, it doesn’t mean they don’t play at all, they obviously earned the privilege of playing in this championship. Everyone raises their game a notch in for this event and that makes the challenge of winning a match even harder. I feel good and April and I played good enough tonight considering my injury and layoff right during a key time on the FIVB World Tour calendar. But we’re here in Apeldoorn and started out with a win.”
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
WOMEN’S DAILY SCHEDULE – Sunday, June 28
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN (Time, seed, players, country)
POOL F in Apeldoorn
7 p.m. – (6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil vs. (30) Bibiana Candelas/Claudia Rios, Mexico
8 p.m. – (19) Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy, United States vs. (43) Lianma Flores/Leila Martinez, Cuba
POOL K in Apeldoorn
2 p.m. – (14) Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova, Slovak Republic vs. (35) Karolina Baran/Jagoda Gruszczynska, Poland
3 p.m. – (11) Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Germany vs. (38) Nathalia Alfaro/Karen Charles, Costa Rica
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
MEN’S DAILY SCHEDULE – Sunday, June 28
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN (Time, seed, players, country)
POOL C in Apeldoorn
1 p.m. – (22) Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst vs. (46) Joshua Court/Damien Schumann, Australia
9 p.m. – (3) Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil vs. (27) Jefferson Santos Pereira/Cherif Younousse, Qatar
POOL F in Apeldoorn
6 p.m. – (19) Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile vs. (43) Yaroslav Koshkarev/Dimitri Barsouk, Russia
4 p.m. – (6) Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Martins Plavins, Latvia vs. (30) Michael van Dorsten/Steven van de Velde, Netherlands
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
WOMEN’S RESULTS – Saturday, June 27
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN (seed, players, country, score, time)
POOL C in Apeldoorn
(22) Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada def. (27) Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird, Australia, 21-14, 21-17 (36 minutes)
(3) Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, United States def. (46) Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema, Netherlands, 21-13, 22-20 (33)
POOL F in Apeldoorn
(6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil def. (43) Lianma Flores/Leila Martinez, Cuba, 21-17, 23-21 (42)
(19) Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy, United States def. (30) Bibiana Candelas/Claudia Rios, Mexico, 21-18, 21-19 (37)
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
MEN’S RESULTS – Saturday, June 27
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN (seed, players, country, score, time)
POOL F in Apeldoorn
(30) Michael van Dorsten/Steven van de Velde, Netherlands def. (19) Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile, 21-16, 19-21, 13-15 (51)
(6) Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Martins Plavins, Latvia def. (43) Yaroslav Koshkarev/Dimitri Barsouk, Russia, 21-18, 24-22 (38)
POOL C in Apeldoorn
(3) Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil def. (46) Joshua Court/Damien Schumann, Australia, 21-17, 21-18 (36)
(27) Jefferson Santos Pereira/Cherif Younousse, Qatar def. (22) Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, 14-21, 21-15, 15-13 (46)
POOL K in Apeldoorn
(19) Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States def. (35) Francisco Marco/Christian Garcia, Spain, 18-21, 22-20, 15-10 (58)
(11) Alvaro Filho/Vitor Felipe, Brazil def. (38) Pablo Bianchi/Julian Azaad, Argentina, 21-16, 21-18 (41)