Sochi, Russia, May 6, 2016 - After disappointing pool performances Thursday, the two top men’s teams on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour ranking list bounced back with opening elimination wins here Friday in the US$150,000 Sochi Open being played on the four Beach Volleyball courts at Sport Inn in the Black Sea coastal resort city.
With only 10 points separating the two teams, Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor of Poland (3,100 points) and Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula of Italy (3,090) finished third (Pool F) and second (Pool E), respectively, in their groups Thursday, but qualified for the elimination rounds of the Sochi Open where both teams posted mid-day wins Friday.
Seeded sixth in the Sochi Open, Losiak and Kantor scored a 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) win in 41 minutes over the 15th-seeded Ingrossos for their third win in FIVB World Tour matches over the Italian twins (Matteo and Paolo) of Italy. The fifth-seeded Ranghieri and Carambula scored a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) center court victory in 34 minutes over 17th-seeded Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin of Russia in the first international meeting between the two pairs.
In advancing to the second-round of elimination where Ranghieri/Carambula win and a Losiak/Kantor set would give the Italians the leadership spot on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour ranking list. With both matches on the Sochi Open center court, the Polish pair will be playing eighth-seeded Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia after the Italians challenge fourth-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia.
Although the Italians have never played Samoilovs and Smedins on the FIVB World Tour, Ranghieri and Carambula met the Latvians twice at the 2015 European Continental Championships last summer in Klagenfurt, Austria. Samoilovs and Smedins defeated their Italian rivals twice, including a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) gold medal win in 39-minutes on August 2. Losiak and Kantor will be seeking their first win over Semenov and Krasilnikov as the Poles dropped a 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) decision to the Russians at the 2015 Yokohama Grand Slam in Japan on July 24.
Samoilovs and Smedins won last September’s inaugural Sochi Open by defeating Americans Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena 2-0 (24-22, 21-19) in the 44-minute finale. Semenov and Krasilnikov finished fourth in the 2015 Sochi Open after dropping the bronze medal match to Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy 2-1 (21-18, 15-21, 15-13) in 55 minutes.
Here are the other match ups for the second-round of elimination Friday with the winners advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals (Sochi seeding).
• Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira, Spain (2) vs. Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, Canada (11)
• Yaroslav Koshkarev/Ruslan Bykanov, Russia (27, Q6) vs. Grant O'Gorman/Sam Pedlow, Canada (20)
• Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl, Austria (19) vs. Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland (7)
• Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Germany (10) vs. Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo, Italy (9)
• Nikita Liamin/Ilya Leshukov, Russia (28) vs. Tri Bourne/John Hyden, United States (3)
• Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz, Poland (16) vs. Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson, France (13)