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16/05/2015

Men’s Lucerne Open “Final Four” Teams Set

Lucerne, Switzerland, May 16, 2015 - Italian, Swiss and Turkish teams will be among the four Beach men’s Volleyball pairs still competing for the medals in the US$150,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Lucerne Open 2015 as reigning FIVB World Champions Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands will be the featured tandem as the “final four” participants were determined during Saturday’s two elimination rounds.

MEN’S “FINAL FOUR” TEAMS

The eighth-seeded Brouwer and Meeuwsen will be joined for Sunday’s rounds by 10th-seeded Murat Giginoglu/Volkan Gogtepe of Turkey, 18h-seeded Jackson Henriquez/Jesus Villafane of Venezuela, 27th-seeded Alex Ranghieri/Marco Caminati of Italy and 28th-seeded Nico Beeler/Alexei Strasser of Switzerland

The Dutch with play Giginoglu and Volkan in Sunday’s first men’s semi-final at 11 a.m. (local time) followed by the Swiss challenging Ranghieri and Caminati at approximately 12 p.m. on the Lido center court. The women’s medal matches will also be played Sunday starting with the third-place match at 2 p.m. followed by the men’s bronze contest and then the women’s finale before the men’s title confrontation.

The winning pairs will each share the $11,000 first-place prizes per gender along with gaining valuable qualifying points for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Sunday’s winning teams will garner 500 points with second netting 450, third 400 and fourth 350.

DUTCH DELIGHT

Brouwer and Meeuwsen will be playing in their second FIVB World Tour “final four” this season as the Dutch pair finished second in the 2015 opening stop in China last month at Fuzhou. After defeating a team from Estonia in their first match Saturday, Brouwer and Meeuwsen posted a 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 18-16) win in 57 minutes over third-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia.

With the victory, Brouwer and Meeuwsen will be competing in their fifth FIVB World Tour semi-final with their only gold medal finish in 40 international starts together being the podium topper at the 2013 FIVB ‘senior” World Championships in Stare Jablonki, Poland.

TURKISH THRILLS

In becoming the first Turkish team to advance to a FIVB World Tour “final four”, Giginoglu and Gogtepe opened play Saturday by ousting a Polish team before advancing to Sunday’s semi-finals with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) win in 39 minutes over 18th-seeded Jackson Henriquez/Jesus Villafane of Venezuela.

The Lucerne Open is Giginoglu and Gogtepe fourth FIVB event together ended last season by placing fifth in the Brazilian Grand Slam and the Chinese Open in Xiamen followed by a ninth in the Qatar Open in Doha.

ITALIAN IDOLS

Italy was guaranteed a spot in the Lucerne Open semi-finals Ranghieri and Caminati withstood a second set challenge from the 21st-seeded Ingrosso twins (Matteo/Paolo) to post a 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) win in 45 minutes over their compatriots. Earlier Saturday, Ranghieri and Caminati ousted a Swiss pair from the competition.

Ranghieri and Caminati, who are playing in their first-ever FIVB World Tour event together, have now won seven-straight matches in the Lucerne Open. After qualifying for the Lucerne Open Main Draw Wednesday with victories over pairs from Switzerland and Poland Wednesday, the Italians advanced to the elimination rounds by winning pool play matches over pairs from Canada, Germany and Poland.

SWISS SUCCESS

Like the Italians, Beeler and Strasser are playing in their first-ever world tour event together. The Swiss started play Saturday by ousting a team from Mexico before avenging a pool play setback to fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera by defeating the Spaniards 2-0 (21-18, 25-23) in 42 minutes. In an opening pool play match Thursday, Gavira and Herrera scored a 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) win in 37 minutes

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