The men’s eighthfinal match-ups decided at the Ostrava 4-star stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour after the second legs of the pool stage and the first elimination round took place on Friday. Dutch pair Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot won two three-setters against top-level opponents to reach the last 16.
Boermans & De Groot shine on way to Ostrava eighthfinals
Three Dutch pairs among the last 16 of the 4-star tournament
Published 04:32, 04 Jun 2021
26-year-old Boermans and 20-year-old De Groot, who advanced from Wednesday’s qualifications, lost their first main draw match on Thursday, but came back on the winning track on Friday with two big victories. First, in the losers match of Pool G, the 26th-seeded Dutchmen defeated none other than legendary Americans Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser by a hard-fought 2-1 (21-17, 17-21, 17-15). In the first elimination round, Boermans and De Groot came back from a set down against Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl to master another 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-10) victory.
Their next challenge is an all-Dutch eighthfinal clash with experienced compatriots Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, who topped Pool F on a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 15-11) turnaround against Canada’s Ben Saxton and Grant O'Gorman.
“Incredible! We knew we had a good game plan against both teams. We played them in Mexico. We did a really good job over there, but couldn’t win one of the two matches. This morning, we got back at the Americans and now we beat the Poles again and it feels amazing!” Boermans told Volleyball World.
“Two amazing matches! It was a crazy day! It’s a nice place to play here and I’m grateful that we continue to play now. Next we play our training partners Brouwer and Meeuwsen, so they better watch out! It’s always a different chemistry when fellow countrymen are playing each other. Let’s see what tomorrow brings...” De Groot added.
Yorick de Groot in a spectacular save
Another Dutch pair, Christiaan Varenhorst and Steven van de Velde, also advanced to the eighthfinals after two wins on Friday, 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) over Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig in the pool stage, and 2-1 (21-17, 24-26, 15-11) over Saxton and O'Gorman in the first elimination round. Next, they will play world ranking leaders Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway, who topped Pool B after a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) victory over USA’s Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb.
The Americans also lost in straight sets to Brazil’s Andre Stein and George Wanderley in the first round, but, on the positive side, they mathematically qualified for Tokyo after their compatriots Lucena and Dalhausser failed to survive the pool stage in the morning. The Brazilian pair will face another Crabb in the second round, the team of Trevor Crabb and Tri Bourne, who won Pool E.
Andre outjumps Taylor Crabb on centre court
Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins stayed well on track to reclaiming their spot above the cut-off line in the provisional Olympic ranking by a convincing 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) shutout of their main rivals in the race, Chile’s Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt, in the first round. The Latvians, however, need at least one more win in Ostrava to surpass the Chilean cousins in the ranking and they have Pool H winners Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo of Italy in the way.
Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov put a stop to whatever Olympic aspirations Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Lars Fluggen might have had by knocking them out of contention with a 2-1 (15-21, 21-11, 15-11) comeback on the way to an eighthfinal meeting with third-seeded Qataris Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, who achieved a comeback of their own in the Pool C final against Fijalek and Bryl, 2-1 (15-21, 27-25, 15-10).
Home favourites Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner came back from a set down on the way to a 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 15-12) victory over Samoilovs and Smedins to top Pool A. In the eighthfinals, they will be challenged by rising Austrians Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, who hammered out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) shutout of Brazilian standouts Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho.
David Schweiner shows emotion
Germany’s Armin Dollinger and Clemens Wickler earned a spot in the eighthfinals with a 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 15-8) turnaround against Russia’s Nikita Liamin and Taras Myskiv, to take on Pool G winners Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak of Poland next.
Experienced Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira survived an all-Spanish battle with compatriots Cesar Menendez Ortego and Alejandro Huerta Pastor to claim the third place in Pool A after a 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-13) comeback, before cruising to a straight-set 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) win over young Italians Jakob Windisch and Samuele Cottafava on the way to a second-round encounter with reigning world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy of Russia, who topped Pool D.
