Gstaad, Switzerland, July 6, 2016 - Teams from Brazil and the United States had a reversal of fortunes in a 27-hour period here Wednesday after recovering from a Tuesday morning country quota setback to advance to the men’s Main Draw at this week’s $800,000 Gstaad Major.
With late withdrawals by two teams after the start of the country quota rounds Tuesday, Saymon Barbosa/Gustavo “Guto” Carvalhaes of Brazil and the Crabb brothers (Taylor and Trevor) of the United States won draws to regain an opportunity to qualify for Thursday’s opening pool play matches in the money rounds.
Both teams took advantage of their second chance starting with opening qualifying wins Tuesday afternoon to advance to Wednesday schedule where they secure Main Draw berths. Ironically, the teams that defeated the two “lucky losers” dropped qualifying matches to leave Gstaad without a paycheck.
Seeded first in the qualifier, Saymon and Guto advanced to the money rounds with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) win in 29 minutes over 16th-seeded Lukas Kazdailis and Arnas Rumsevicius of Lithuania. It marked Saymon and Guto’s eighth successful advancement in 10 attempts from a FIVB World Tour qualifiers.
The fifth-seeded Crabbs are now three-for-three with qualifying advancements after posting a 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-10) win in 42 minutes over 12th-seeded Martin Ermacora / Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg of Austria. Playing in only their third FIVB World Tour event after posting ninths earlier this season at events in China and the United States, the Crabbs are playing in their first “major” international event together.
With one team guaranteed a spot in Thursday’s Main Draw with two Norway teams meeting in the second-round of elimination, two pairs from the European country gain berths in the money rounds along with teams from Germany, Latvia, Poland and Spain.
The All-Norwegian qualifier had 13th-seeded Daniel Bergerud and Svein Solhaug posting a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) win in 34 minutes over fourth-seeded compatriots Oivind Hordvik and Bjarte Usken. Fellow countrymen Geir Eithun and Christian Sorum joined the ranks of qualifying victors with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) win in 30 minutes.
Eighth-seeded Christian Garcia and Francisco Alfredo Marco of Spain posted a 2-1 (16-21, 24-22, 15-7) win in 50 minutes over ninth-seeded Americans Ryan Doherty and John Mayer of the United States, who had defeated the Crabb brothers in Tuesday’s country quota rounds.
Sixth-seeded Tim Holler and Stefan Windscheif of Germany advanced to the Main Draw with a 2-1 (17-21, 22-20, 15-13) win in 45 minutes over 11th-seeded Lorenz Petutschnig and Tobias Winter of Austria while second-seeded Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza of Latvia gained a spot in the “money” rounds with a 2-0 (21-10, 21-17) win in 30 minutes over Felix Koraimann and Daniel Mullner of Austria.
In the final match Wednesday, third-seeded Maciej Kosiak and Maciej Rudol of Poland defeated Anders Lund Hoyer and Peter Kildegaard of Denmark 2-1 (31-29, 18-21, 15-12) in 53 minutes. The Danes defeated Oscar Brandeo and Thiago Barbosa Santos Tuesday after the Brazilians defeated Saymon and Guto in the country quota rounds.
After two rounds of pool play matches Thursday, the men’s schedule Friday will feature group action in the morning with the first round of elimination in the afternoon. Saturday’s two rounds of elimination will set the field for Sunday’s semi-finals and medal matches as the winning team shares the $57,000 first-place prize.