Three of Sunday’s beach volleyball matches at the Olympic Games in Tokyo were decided in a tiebreak.
In what was probably the most anticipated match, the Pool F fixture between the silver medallists of the last edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, Germany’s Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler, and the silver medallists of the last Olympic Games, Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo, the result was a close call throughout and each of the three sets was resolved by the narrowest of margins. A monster block by Nicolai delivered the match point in the tie-breaker. Seconds later, Lupo found an empty spot on the German side of the court to close it off at 2-1 (19-21, 21-19 15-13).
The Brazilian pairing of former world champion Evandro Goncalves and defending Olympic champ Bruno Schmidt started well against Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt and won the first set. The Chilean cousins fought their way back to level the match and push it to a tie-breaker. Evandro and Bruno Schmidt, however, did not allow the opponents to achieve a complete turnaround and claimed the decider to win the match by 2-1 (21-15, 16-21, 15-12).
Liliana Fernаndez and Elsa Baquerizo won the only three-setter on the women’s programme. In their first Pool B game at Shiokaze Park, third-time Olympians Liliana and Elsa came back from a set down to celebrate a tiebreak victory over Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands. The Spanish pair narrowly lost the first set, but put their act together for the next two. In the deciding set, they wasted a double match point, but at their next opportunity to close the match, Liliana did so with a monster block to shape up the final 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 16-14).
A total of six men’s and four women’s fixtures were played on Sunday’s second competition day at Shiokaze Park.
Today’s recap of the women’s competition
Today’s recap of the men’s competition
Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Schedule and results
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach volleyball
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
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