Tim Holler and Jonas Schroder completed their giant-killing act by winning the maiden gold medal of the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour at the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy in Al Gharafa Club on Saturday.
The 14th-seeded Germans raised their level by a notch or two in the inaugural Qatar Open semi-finals and stunned the formidable second seeds from Canada, Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter in straight sets at 21-18 21-13 in 33 minutes. The winners pocketed $11,000, while the runners-up earned $8,000.
The Germans had played the Canadians in China before and lost to them. But they were much stronger and were helped a great deal by their fine serving and back-court play.
A packed crowd of about 1,200 fans thoroughly savoured the two medals matches, scheduled for the exciting evening, which began with fifth seeds Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson from France beating Russians Serguei Prokopiev and Ruslan Bykanov, the 16th seeds, 21-15 21-15 in 34 minutes to bag the third place. The efforts fetched them $6,000 prize money.
Qatar Volleyball Association President Khalid Ali al Mawlawi presided over the closing ceremony and handed the prizes. Also present on the occasion were QVA Secretary-General Mohammed Ali al Mohannadi, representatives of sponsors and FIVB Technical Supervisor Joep van Iersel.
The first set was more interesting than the first one as Binstock and Schachter, playing second final in a row on the World Tour after winning the Parana Open in Argentina last week against Chilean cousins Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt, caught the Germans a few times till 7-each.
Then two points by Schroder with a drop and clean spike and a block by Holler sent the Germans three points clear. The Canadians managed to return into the set and came within a point of equalising (12-13). Two successive smashes by Schroder again handed them a three-point cushion.
This time, Binstock and Schachter could not recover and then faced four set points when the former spiked into the net. They however managed to avoid two set points. Holler then contrived a touch out off Binstock to wrest 1-0 lead for his team.
In the second, the Germans, backed by a strong support from the African stands, began piling pressure on the second seeds and from 4-3, they shot 9-4 ahead. Later, they stretched the advantage to seven points thrice with Holler dominating the net play.
With a clever drop off the second touch, Schroder contrived the match point (20-13). Holler followed it up a tremendous spike and fell flat on his back to celebrate the first title on the World Tour.
“It was just an incredible win for us in Doha and we’re very excited with the gold medal finish here,” Schroder commented after the final.
“Holler played brilliantly at the net and I tried to match him at the back court. The Canadians are tough and they had beaten earlier. We knew their game and tried to get the control of it right from the beginning.
“It was not an easy match. Now we’re the champions and it is an amazing feeling. We’ll go back home from Doha with a plenty of good memories but we’ll be back to defend the title next year,” added Schroder.
The Germans, who bagged the World University Beach Volleyball crown earlier in the year, shocked third seeds Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Toms Smedins from Latvia. Then they were involved in roller-coaster first sets in two matches in the elimination round.
“We were lucky to make the first semi-finals on the World Tour and it is really thrilling to pull off the gold medal. It was a great atmosphere in Doha and we loved the crowd,” said Holler.
Binstock regretted that his team lacked the dash or drive, which resulted into the loss.”The energy that usually makes us win wasn’t there. The fatigue also came into the play. Also they played very well and got breaks. So it was a little bit combination of both.
“Their serving was the difference. They handled it much better and there was pressure on us always. That was the main difference. At the end my service was working but that was a bit too late. We could not stop them. We were not consistent,” added the 33-year-old Binstock.
Schachter, who is playing with Binstock in the first season, said,”We are always happy to come home with a medal. We were disappointed with the way we finished. It was such a great tournament and we had a great time.
Talking about the rivals, Schachter said,”They are a strong team. They are young and going to be strong in the future. We were low in trouble passing. We hope to recover from this and will try to get stronger.”
The bronze medal match was contesting in the beginning in both the sets but Krou and Rowlandson, who won a title in China earlier, strung together points to carve out lead before strolling to the win.
“We are a team that never gives up. Even though we had lost the crucial match in the morning, we came back for the second match of the day and played well to win this one. So we’re very pleased with the finish,” said Krou.
Rowlandson said,”We had a tough match against the German team and we had lost 2-0. But we managed to beat the Russian team and win the bronze medal.”
“Now we have the last event of the season in South Africa. We’ll like to be on the podium there, using the experience that we got in Doha,” added Rowlandson.