FIVB – Doha, Qatar, November 10, 2015 – Matteo and Paolo Ingrosso put three months away from the court behind them to record two wins from two on the opening day of the Qatar Open on Tuesday.
The Italian twins last played an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event at the Yokohama Grand Slam in July, where they reached the quarterfinals. Since then they played two CEV events before Paolo’s fingers injuries meant they had to take time off.
They began their return with a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 20-18) win over Austria’s Peter Eglseer and Daniel Mullner and then followed up by defeating USA’s Stafford Slick and Mark Edwin Burik 2-0 (21-17, 22-20).
“We’ve started this Qatari adventure well, especially when you consider we haven’t been able to play for the last few months because of Paolo’s injury,” Matteo Ingrosso said.
“We’re finding our rhythm a little at a time and we have to be pleased with how it went in these two matches. We had to work hard and remember the work that we did in training during these past few months.”
Defending champs keep up winning run
The 2014 gold medallists Jonas Schroder and Tim Holler picked up from where they left off a year ago by adding two more victories to their run in Doha.
They defeated Italy’s Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) in their first match and then followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) win over European Games champions Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza.
“The start was ok,” Schroder said. “We both have some little injuries, me with my knee and he has some shoulder injuries. We are glad we won this game, but we are not at 100 per-cent right now.”
The pair had a delayed start to the 2015. After they won in Doha last year they had to wait till May 2015 for their next tournament, a German Tour event in Munster.
The delay was caused after Schroder took up a five-month university semester abroad at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Since Schroder’s return they finished third overall on the German Tour, finished second at the CEV Milan Masters and finished fifth at the Antalya Open three weeks ago to suggest that they have started to return to the form that helped them win gold in 2014.
“We have great memories from last year, but the teams are stronger than last year,” Holler said.
“It was hard the first time after he was away, but then we found some form and finished third on the German Championship, second on the European Tour and we’re getting better.”