No big beach volleyball surprises on the opening day in Shiokaze Park
Recap
As many as four Men’s European teams entered the courts in Shiokaze Park, starting their Olympic Journey in Tokyo 2020. Pool A featured a match between Leshukov/Semenov (ROC) and Herrera/Gavira (ESP), and a fixture between the Norwegian stars Mol/Sorum against the Australian pair McHugh/Schumann. In Pool D, the Dutch Brouwer/Meeuwsen met USA’s Lucena/Dalhausser.
After a thrilling fight in the opening match, Leshukov and Semenov outperformed Herrera and Gavira in two sets(21-19, 22-20). Both teams kept the intrigue in the match alive until the final referee whistle. In the much anticipated European derby of Day 1, the athletes representing the Russian Olympic Committee did better on the block (recording five compared to two by the Spanish players). On the other hand, the Spanish duo were unstoppable on the attack, scoring as many as 31 winning spikes. However, this it wasn’t enough to stop the Russians, who seized all the opportunities and scored more on their opponents’ errors.
Herrera/Gavira“It was a very close match that, as we already knew, has been defined by a couple of details. Now, we will put the focus on our next game on Monday, when we will face the Norwegians Mol and Sorum.”
Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, the number one pair in both the FIVB World Ranking and the Olympic Ranking for Tokyo qualification, claimed a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-13) win over McHugh/Schumann (AUS). The Norwegian duo grabbed easily the first set, but then lacked concentration in the second one, and the Australians seized the opportunity to bring the match into a tiebreak. It was down to the wire in the decisive set, but Mol and Sorum were able to avoid the disappointment. The Australians performed better on attack (35 to 30), but seven monster blocks by Mol and Sorum sealed the deal in the match.
Sixth-ranked, the Dutch pair of Brouwer/Meeuwsen (bronze medallists from Rio 2016) started on the right foot their Olympic journey in Tokyo2020, defeating at 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) the 12th ranked Lucena/Dalhausser in a great match in Pool D. Both teams remained concentrated throughout the match. The better performance on attack by the Netherlands players (26 to 20) became the key to the success in this fixture. Robert Meeuwsen aced two times in the match, while none of the U.S. players was able to record a direct serve point. With a slightly better play on the net, Lucena and Dalhausser outperformed their opponents on the block (four to three). Brouwer and Meeuwsen, who snatched the Gold from the Ostrava Beach Open 2021, will face Azaad/Capogrosso (ARG), who earlier on the day lost 0-2 from Alisson/Alvaro Filho (BRA) on July 27.
Robert Meeuwsen“It’s a great feeling! Nice way to start the tournament. We were a bit nervous at the start, but really focused on our task, and I think we played at a decent level as well.”
Alexander Brouwer“Of course, we are proud of this win in our opening match. Although we were behind in both sets, we kept fighting, we made some really good plays and we found our way back. We kept our focus, we kept our calm and I am really proud of the way we played this evening.”
The first day of the women's competition at the Shiokaze Park Stadium featured two meetings involving teams from Switzerland and Germany and the southern neighbors came out on top in both with three-set victories.
Debuting in the Games, Nina Betschart and Tanja Huberli started their Olympic history in strong fashionon Pool F as the Swiss came from behind to defeat reigning Olympic champion and beach volleyball legend Laura Ludwig and her partner Margareta Kozuch in three sets (23-25, 22-20, 16-14) in what was arguably the most contested match of the day in Tokyo.
Tanja Huberli“We knew from the beginning that it might be a difficult game. We were prepared for a big fight and that's what we did even if we were down and they were leading. They put a lot of pressure on us, we kept believing and kept fighting and that's what made the difference. We just believed until the end and we fought and we are really happy to take home the win.”
Swiss Player
A couple of hours later, reigning EuroBeachVolley champions Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre secured another victory for Switzerland as the Rio 2016 Olympians downed Julia Sude and Karla Borger also in three sets (21-8, 21-23, 15-6) to get an early lead on Pool A.
Julia Sude“We tried to get a good start, but it obviously didn't work out that way. We’ll look forward to our next matches to try and have a better outcome. We’ll analyse the footage from the match and see how we can improve. We want to focus on each element that we can improve on.”
German Player
Also on Pool A, the young Dutch duo of Katja Stam, 22, and Raisa Schoon, 19, also hit the sand in the opening day of the Olympic tournament as they were faced with Canadians Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes. The reigning world champions proved too much for the European Continental Cup Final winners and took the match in straight sets (21-16, 21-14).
Czechs Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova were scheduled to play Japanese Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami in the opening match of the beach volleyball tournament in Tokyo but were forced to forfeit all their Pool F matches due to a positive result for COVID-19 right before the Games.