World champs survive upset scare in Tokyo opener

Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov of ROC and Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway snatched the first two tickets to the Round of 16 of the men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament at Tokyo 2020 as they opened the second leg of the pool stage with victories. Earlier on Monday at Shiokaze Park, the first-leg matches were completed, almost stirring a sensational surprise.

Unexpectedly, the opening match in Pool B turned into a hard-fought three-set battle, in which reigning world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy of ROC were pushed to an extended tie-breaker by Mexican rookies Josue Gaxiola and Jose Luis Rubio.

A very competitive first set went well into overtime before the Mexicans came out on top. Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy dominated the second set to level the match and seemed to be cruising to victory with a 9-2 advantage in the tie-breaker. Gaxiola and Rubio fought their way back eventually managing to deny a triple match point for their opponents to tie the score at 14-14. The Mexicans saved two more match points before the world champs could finally claim a 2-1 (24-26, 21-15, 18-16) victory.

“We had a little struggle during the match. We didn’t finish some transitions in the first set and that gave the Mexicans confidence,” Stoyanovskiy told Volleyball World. “We give them our respect. They fought really well throughout the match, but we followed our tactics and it paid off. I think in the end we were a bit nervous. We should have finished this earlier, but a win is a win. Now we’ll try to focus on the next game.”

The other match in that pool was not played. Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs were awarded the victory after Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner had to withdraw because of an ongoing coronavirus quarantine.

While Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy had to struggle through three sets to claim their first victory, their compatriots Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov cruised to their second win in Pool A. They mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) shutout of Australia’s Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann. In the last match of the day, Former FIVB World Ranking leaders Anders Mol and Christian Sorum managed a 2-0 (21-17, 24-22) victory over Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira, after recovering from a five-point deficit in the second set.

Both Leshukov and Semenov and Mol and Sorum have two wins each on their record and will lock horns with each other to distribute the top two spots in the pool standings. The Spaniards and the Australians will have to battle it out for the third place.

“It’s amazing to be the first team to advance,” Sorum told Volleyball World. “It’s our first Olympics and we are super happy to make it out of the pool. In our last pool match against Leshukov and Semenov we have to play really good volleyball to beat them. They are a really strong team, they are on fire right now, and we have to prepare well.”

“We are not playing our best volleyball yet, but we’re getting there,” said Mol. “Today was better than Saturday and we feel that we are going forward, so we can also play better on Wednesday against Leshukov and Semenov, the best team in this pool. It’s going to be tough, but we’re up for a fight.”

Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Schedule and results
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach volleyball
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
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