News

27/05/2021

Nicolai & Lupo mount major comeback in Sochi

Sixteen men’s teams secured their spots among the last 24 in the single elimination rounds of the Sochi 4-star stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour by winning their first pool matches on Thursday.

In one of the most interesting games of the day, Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo managed to turn the course against well-seasoned Spaniards Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira to claim a 2-1 (14-21, 21-18, 15-11) victory. On Friday, the 13th-seeded Italians will challenge fourth-seeded Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar for the top of the standings in Pool D and a spot in the eighthfinals.

“It was a tough match. We started a little bit without rhythm and then, play by play, we gradually improved. I think we finished strong because we played really consistently in the third set,” Paolo Nicolai told Volleyball World. “Our next match is tomorrow so we have time to rest and relax. It is time to switch off and then refocus tomorrow.”

Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb were very close to achieving a similar feat against Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller. After losing the first set and trailing in the second, the sixth-seeded Americans came back to reach match point in the third, but the Austrian qualifiers kept their cool to celebrate a 2-1 (21-14, 20-22, 17-15) win. Seidl and Waller will contest the Pool F pole position with Italy’s Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi.

Another American pair, Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, however, managed to win their tie-breaker against Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Lars Fluggen in a Pool A match. They snatched a 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-10) victory to move on to pool final encounter with Russian world champions and top-seeded team in the competition Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy.

All other first-leg matches of the men’s pool stage were resolved in straight sets.

Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum and Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak set up a meeting for the first place in Pool B. Netherlands’ Christiaan Varenhorst and Steven van de Velde will be challenged by main draw newcomers Daniil Kuvichka and Anton Kislytsyn of Russia for the top of Pool C. Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner and USA’s Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser will go against each other in the Pool E winners match. Reigning Olympic champion Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho of Brazil will take on Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson in Pool G, while the top of Pool H will be resolved in an encounter between Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs and Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov.