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11/03/2016

Seven countries net men’s Rio pool titles

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 10, 2016 - Teams from seven different countries captured pool titles here Thursday to advance with byes to Friday’s elimination bracket play in the $800,000 Rio Grand Slam on iconic Copacabana where the world’s best beach volleyball players will return in August for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Quick links
•    Rio Grand Slam website
•    Country quota results - Men
•    Country quota results - Women
•    Qualification - Men
•    Qualification - Women
•    Main draw - Men
•    Main draw - Women

While the women played only 16 matches Thursday to complete group action in the first big event on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar, the men had a 32-match schedule on Copacabana where two pairs from Poland netted pool crowns along with tandems from Brazil, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland.

The top three pairs in each pool advanced to the 24-team elimination bracket with two rounds being played Friday followed by the quarter and semifinal matches Saturday for both men and women. The medal matches will be played Sunday morning where the winning teams in both genders will split the $57,000 first-place prizes.

UPSET

Posting Thursday’s biggest upset was Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov as the 11th-seeded Russian defeated sixth-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena of the United States 2-1 (27-25, 17-21, 15-13) in a 56-minute Pool F title match. The Americans entered this week’s event with two Open gold medals on the 2015-2016 international calendar with podium topping finishes in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) and Brazil (Maceio).

“It was a very tough match in the heat today,” said Semenov. “We lost a tough semifinal match to the Americans last September in Sochi on our home sand, so today’s victory was revenge in a way. It is still early in the tournament, but winning the pool and gaining a bye to the second round Friday gives us more time to recover from two tough matches today.”

Two of the men’s pool winners Thursday have captured gold medals at FIVB World Championships - top-seeded Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt (FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015) and fifth-seeded Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands (FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013). Both pairs finished with 3-0 pool marks with Alison and Bruno topping Pool A and the Dutch finishing first in Pool E.

STAYIN’ ALIVE

Fijalek

Poland's Grzegorz Fijalek ready for play

Polish pool victors were 15th-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel (Pool B) and 23rd-seeded qualifiers Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (Pool G). While Kantor and Losiak finished 3-0 in their group, Fijalek and Prudel won the three-way tie-breaker with second-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst of the Netherlands and Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos of Brazil by having a better point ratio with the three-tying pairs.

Emanuel and Ricardo, who defeated Nummerdor and Varenhorst 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) in a 42-minute Thursday morning match, defeated 31st-seeded qualifiers Dmitri Barsouk/Nikita Liamin of Russia 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) in a 39-minute evening match to force the three-way tie.

Nummerdor and Varenhorst ended Thursday by defeating Fijalek and Prudel 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 20-18) in a 62-minute match. Emanuel and Ricardo dropped a 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 15-12) in 57 minutes to Fijalek and Prudel Wednesday evening.

Other pool winners Thursday were 14th-seeded Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri of Italy (Pool C), 29th-seeded qualifiers Nico Beeler/Alexei Strasser of Switzerland (Pool D) and 24th-seeded Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson of France (Pool H). The Italians were 3-0 in their group while the French and Swiss won tie-breakers in their pool due to better point ratios.

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