Rome, Italy, September 6, 2019 - Spaniards Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera, the only team to compete in all six FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events in the Italian capital, rebounded from an opening setback to win a mid-day match here Friday to advance to the elimination rounds at the $600,000 FIVB World Tour Finals.
Seeded 23rd in their 115th FIVB World Tour event together, Gavira and Herrera posted a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) win in 39 minutes over 26th-seeded Austrian qualifiers Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg to gain one of the last eight men's berths in the 24-team elimination rounds of the FIVB World Tour Finals at the Foro Italico.
Playing together since 2009 on the FIVB World Tour, Gavira and Herrera dropped their opening match on Thursday to 10th-seeded Evandro Goncalves/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil, who captured Pool G by defeating seventh-seeded Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen in three sets.
Quick links - Beach volleyball:
"We had a tough pool with the other two teams featuring Olympic and world champions," said the 31-year-old Gavira. "I have learned there are no easy matches on the FIVB World Tour. The Austrians we defeated today are an up-and-coming team and it was a good match. Now, we need to get some rest and get ready for another tough match."
Also netting the last men's berths in the elimination field were the Russian pairs of 14th-seeded Ilya Leshukov/Konstantin Semenov and 20th-seeded Nikita Liamin/Taras Myskiv along with eighth-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena of the United States, 16th-seeded Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen of Germany 21st-seeded Mirco Gerson/Adrian Heidrich of Switzerland, 22nd-seeded Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland and 31st-seeded qualifiers Quincy Aye/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat of France.