News 18/03/2016 Top Dutch & American men's teams meet on Vitória’s Camburi beach Friday Vitória, Brazil, March 18, 2016 - While most of the attention for this week’s US$150,000 Vitória Open has been on the Camburi beach center court where teams from Brazil have played a majority of time due to hosting the FIVB World Tour event, one of the tournament’s best matches here Friday will be the confrontation between Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen versus Americans Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson.The two teams will meet for the seventh-time on the international circuit after Brouwer and Meeuwsen out-lasted 32nd-seeded qualifiers Dmitri Barsouk and Nikita Liamin of Russia 2-1 (20-22, 21-19, 15-12) in a 45-minute match on Camburi court No. 4 in the first of two elimination rounds Friday.Gibb and Patterson, who earned a first-round “bye” after topping Pool B, will be seeking to avenge a setback to Brouwer and Meeuwsen last Friday at the Rio Grand Slam on Copacabana where the Dutch posted a 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) win in a 36-minute elimination match. Brouwer and Meeuwsen, the 2013 FIVB world champions, have won the last three FIVB World Tour meetings between the two teams to lead the series 4-2.With Brazilians already assured two spots in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games this August (6-18) on Copacabana, the Dutch and Americans are currently ranked first and third, respectively, on the provisional list. Sandwiched between Brouwer/Meeuwsen (5,820 points) and Gibb/Patterson (4,980) are The Netherlands’ Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst (4,980).The Brazilian pairs of Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt (6,550 Olympic qualifying points) and Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg (6,130) are the top two on the Rio provisional list and have already garnered spots in the Summer Games. Alison and Bruno netted a Rio berth by winning the FIVB World Championships last July in The Hague while Evandro and Pedro fill the host country spot.Alison/Bruno and Nummerdor/Varenhorst are still competing in the Vitória Open. Alison and Bruno meet eighth-seeded Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland (Leonardo Gomes / Rodrigo Vieira 30) in an evening match Friday. Nummerdor and Varenhorst will play 25th-seeded Grant O'Gorman and Sam Pedlow of Canada in another second-round elimination match Friday afternoon.Here are the other second-round matches Friday afternoon. Saturday’s schedule will also feature the men’s and women’s semi-finals. The medal matches for both genders will be played Sunday where the winning pairs will split the $11,000 first-place prize.• Saymon Barbosa/Gustavo Carvalhaes, Brazil (No. 28-seeded team, No. 15 qualifying seed) vs. Alvaro Filho/Ricardo Santos, Brazil (18)• Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, Italy (9) vs. Michal Bryl/Jakub Szalankiewicz, Poland (26, Q5)• Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy (13) vs. Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen, Mexico (12)• Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Spain (10) vs. Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland (6)• Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen, Germany (11) vs. Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile (15)The early season FIVB World Tour “swing” through Brazil concludes with the Vitória Open after previous stops in Maceio (Feb. 23-28) and on iconic Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro (March 8-13). Following the Vitória Open, the FIVB World Tour will take a two-week break before resuming action April 4-8 men’s-only event in Doha, Qatar. Before returning to Brazil for the Fortaleza Open at the end of April, two double-gender events will be staged in China at Xiamen (April 12-17) and Fuzhou (April 19-24). Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News