Teams from Brazil and the United States were the first to hit the sand in the opening event of the Cancun Hub that will feature three consecutive FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star tournaments in Mexico until May 2.
Brazilians Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes/Arthur Mariano and Taina Bigi/Victoria Lopes and Americans Theo Brunner/Chaim Schalk and Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil advanced from their country quota matches and will now take part in Friday’s qualifiers, which will determine the final eight men’s and women’s duos guaranteed in the 32-team main draws that start on Saturday.
Playing together for the first time on the World Tour, Guto and Arthur survived a tough battle with Rio 2016 Olympian Pedro Solberg and his partner Arthur Lanci. The two players needed three sets to oust their compatriots 2-1 (21-12, 28-30, 15-13) and remain alive in the tournament.
Read More:
Guto and Arthur's 24-7 Partnership
While the 27-year-old Guto is coming from a silver medal won at the 4-star Katara Open with Evandro Goncalves in March, Arthur is playing in a four-star event for the first time in his career and has appeared in only a single international tournament before.
“I don’t think I had ever felt that much pressure on the court before,” the 23-year-old Arthur said. “It’s my first time in a tournament of this level and to start it with a match in which losing wasn’t an option made it really intense. Despite losing the second set, I think we played really well and were very resilient. Advancing from the country quota was our first goal but it will only get tougher from now on and we need to prepare as well as possible for every match.”
The American men’s country quota had Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk defeating Miles Evans and Billy Kolinske 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) to advance. With three teams and two qualifying berths up for grabs, the highest-seeded Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb moved on without having to play. With the late withdrawal of a Dutch team, they were bumped straight into the main draw and will skip the qualifier as well.
The US women’s country quota, however, featured two matches as three teams competed for a single spot in the qualifier. The opening match saw Sara Hughes and Emily Day down Kelly Reeves and Terese Cannon 2-1 (19-21, 21-10, 15-8).
The team moved on to the next round, but were stopped by Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, who repeated what they had done in the country quota of the Doha event back in March and defeated their compatriots 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) to advance.
Claes and Sponcil are in the middle of a tight Olympic race against compatriots Kerri Walsh Jennings/Brooke Sweat and Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman, who are both guaranteed a place in the main draw, and celebrated their positive first step in the tournament.
“We wanted to win and that’s what we came here and did,” Claes stated. “We tried to do the best we could with our ball control because it gets pretty windy here and focus on our side of the net. It was big because if we lost this, we’d lose an opportunity to try to fight for that Olympic spot. Now we focus on one week at a time and one match at a time so we can continue progressing.”
The Brazilian women’s county quota saw somewhat of an upset with the 25-year-old Taina and the 21-year-old Victoria prevailing in three sets (21-16, 17-21, 15-13) over veterans Barbara Seixas, a Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist, and Carolina Salgado, a 17-year World Tour veteran.
All the action continues to be streamed live on the Beach Volleyball World Youtube channel. Subscribe, log in and set reminders to receive notifications when streams begin.
Go to:
Cancun Hub - 1st event
Cancun Hub - 1st event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube