Czech sensations Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner and Brazilian standouts Evandro Goncalves and Gustavo Carvalhaes are the two teams to battle it out on Friday for the 4-star Katara Beach Volleyball Cup gold. They took two victories each on Thursday to make the final of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Doha.
The 17th-seeded Evandro and Guto managed to come out on top of a fantastic semifinal clash with USA’s Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser to claim their spot in the last match of the tournament. The two teams exchanged hard-fought wins in the first two sets, both extended into overtime. In the tie-breaker, the battle continued, but the Brazilians maintained an edge throughout to a claim 2-1 (26-24, 21-23, 15-11) victory.
“We knew it was going to be a really hard battle with the American team. We know them, they know us… We are really happy with this result and to be in the final. The atmosphere here is empty and strange, but we know why. Still, to be back on Tour after such a long time feels amazing! We’ve been waiting for this tournament all year and we are so grateful to be here,” Guto said after the match.
Earlier on Thursday, Evandro and Guto produced a 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) quarterfinal shutout of Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins.
In the second semifinal, Perusic and Schweiner totally dominated over legendary Americans Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser on the way to an emphatic 2-0 (21-9, 21-17) win to make it to their first 4-star final outside their home country.
The 14th-seeded Czechs actually a harder time in their quarterfinal duel with Qatari favourites Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan. They had to battle it back from a set down to claim a 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 17-15) victory in the ony three-set clash for the spots in the semis.
“It’s amazing! We are in the final and it’s hard to describe the feeling. I would say that fatigue played its role today, because Nick and Phil must have been really tired after yesterday’s three tough matches. But it feels great! We performed really well in this tournament, which shows that all our preparation was worth it. I hope that we will continue tomorrow,” Perusic said.
Top seeds to meet
in women’s final
Top-seeded Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes and second-seeded Alix Klineman and April Ross of USA will play each other in Friday’s women’s final.
The two teams successfully pushed through Thursday’s quarterfinals and semifinals to cross swords for gold.
In the first semi-final of the day, Alix and April dominated fellow Americans Emily Stockman and Kelley Kolinske. After a relatively one-sided first set, the second was more competitive until 7-7. At that moment, Alix and April went on a a seven-point run on April’s serve and practically pre-decided the outcome of the match.
Stockman and Kolinske tried fighting back towards the end, but Alix and April held up to cruise on to a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) win and advance to the final.
In the second semi-final, Pavan and Melissa persevered through two nerve-wracking extended sets to celebrate a 2-0 (24-22, 26-24) victory over third-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) of Brazil. A very hard-fought first set was pushed deep into overtime.
The Canadians denied two opponent set points before taking a one-set lead. In set two, the lead went back and fourth and in the money time it was again Pavan and Melissa who held up better. They saved as many as five set points for Brazil before converting their first match point to victory.