Evandro and Bruno back on the World Tour with a bang

Back on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour for the first time since April, Brazilians Evandro Goncalves and Bruno Schmidt powered through a pair of three-setters on Wednesday to win Pool C and start well in the 4-star event in Gstaad.

Evandro and Bruno, who played the first two events of the Cancun Hub but skipped the third and also missed international events in Sochi and Ostrava, hit the sand in the Swiss Alps with a 2-1 (21-17, 17-21, 15-12) victory over Norway’s Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen.

A few hours later, they returned to the court to face Americans Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb and, once again, needed all three sets (21-14, 19-21, 15-12) to take the win that secured them a place at the top of Pool C and a place in the Round of 16. 

“We’re really excited that we’re back on the World Tour,” Evandro commented. “We had a couple of difficult matches today and it was good for us to go through these challenges. We did well in both matches and it was good to play three sets in each of them but there’s a long tournament ahead of us and a lot to happen.”

The opening day of the main draw in Gstaad also anticipated a meeting that’s set to take place at the end of the month during the Tokyo Olympics. Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira and Russia’s Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov, who will both be in Pool A in Tokyo, were also in the same group in Gstaad and met in Pool G’s decider.

The Spanish, who had started their campaign in the tournament with a solid 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) victory over Dutch Olympic medalists Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, didn’t slow down against the Russians and posted another two-set (21-19, 21-19) win to top their pool.

Pool A winners were Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, who secured the top spot with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) win over Canada’s Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter. Dutchmen Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Grott upset Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan to claim a 2-1 (20-22, 21-12, 15-11) triumph and Pool B’s first place.

Pool D went to Russian qualifiers Nikita Liamin and Taras Myskiv, who downed Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson. The home country did see a team advance directly to the Round of 16, though, as Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer topped Pool H with their 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) win over Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller.

"It was an amazing day for us," Breer said. "We did basically everything well, especially in the second match."

Two Polish teams made it to their pool finals with mixed results. While Grzergorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl prevailed in Pool E with their 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) victory against Dutch Christiaan Varenhorst and Steven van de Velde, Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak were upset by Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins in the three-set (17-21, 25-15, 12-15) Pool E finale.

Pool winners will have the Thursday off while the teams that played in just one match on the opening day will complete pool play. The Round of 24 matches are also set to take place on the second day of competition in the Swiss Alps.

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Gstaad
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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