No two weeks are alike in beach volleyball. Adrian Heidrich and Mirco left the first FIVB World Tour 4-star event at the Cancun Hub frustrated with a pair of pool play losses that prematurely ended their campaign at Playa Delfines. But less than a week later, things look very different for the Swiss duo.
The 26-year-old Heidrich and the 28-year-old Gerson were one of the sensations of the first day of the second tournament in Mexico as they upset two teams ranked in the top 20 of the world to win Pool E and secure their spots in the Round of 16.
In the morning, the Swiss defeated Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira 2-0 (21-16, 22-20). In the evening, they had an even stronger showing against Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl to secure another 2-0 (21-15, 21-11) triumph.
“We certainly didn’t play our best in the previous tournament,” Gerson reflected. “We improved a little bit in our second match but I think we’ve been a lot better this week. We’re handling the wind and the heat better and are making better decisions too. I think today was great to show how much we’ve improved over these last few days.”
Gerson hits during pool final against Bryl and FijalekThe Swiss are one of the teams dealing with the most pressure on the World Tour right now as they currently sit in 15th place in the provisional Olympic Rankings and would be the last team guaranteed a berth in Tokyo if the qualification process ended today.
Some teams, including Canada’s Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter, Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak and Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen, could approach and even pass them depending on the results of the tournament. With Friday’s pool victory, the Swiss have already added at least 80 points to their total. For Gerson, the key is to focus on what they can control.
“I try not to put too much thought on it,” the defender added. “I know that we need to have good results to improve our position in the ranking and get closer to the Olympics, but the only way to do it is playing well. Being at the Olympics is a big goal we have and we want to play well to be there. If we continue playing like we did today, that will give us a good chance.”
Rossi and Carambula are at the top of Pool GThe other pool winners in the men’s tournament in Mexico were Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sorum, Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, Poland’s Maciej Rudol/Jakub Szlankiewicz and Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Alvaro Filho, USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena and Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Enrico Rossi.
Saturday's schedule for the men includes the Round of 24 and the Round of 16. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Sunday and the medal matches for Monday.
Main draw matches in Cancun are 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 - 2nd event
Cancun Hub - 2nd event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women
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