Maceió, Brazil, February 28, 2016 - While the names of Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos have established an almost unattainable standard for any Beach Volleyball player in the world to reach, four of the individuals that present the future for Brazil were competing here Sunday morning in the men’s bronze medal match at US$150,000 Maceió Open on the Pajuçara center courts in front of the Hotel Enseada.
Saymon Barbosa, Gustavo Carvalhaes, Vitor Felipe and Alvaro Filho are the “rising stars” for Brazilian Beach Volleyball and all four players have posted an “impressive” week of playing against the world’s best players in the fifth FIVB World Tour event for men on the 2015-2016 calendar.
For the record, the 22-year olds Saymon and Guto defeated the 24-year old Vitor and 25-year old Alvaro 2-0 (21-18, 25-23) in 55 minutes for the Maceió Open bronze medal and the $6,000 third-place prize. Vitor and Alvaro shared $4,500 for their fourth-place finish as the pair had to win a qualifying match Tuesday to compete in the Main Draw.
2013 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SILVER MEDALIST SPEAKS
“While we will be enjoying the Rio 2016 Olympics Games, I think all the young Brazilian players are eyeing the future to become the next big Beach Volleyball stars for our country,” said Alvaro. “For Brazilians, it is very tough since we have a lot of players that can compete successfully on the FIVB World Tour. My goal is to get better with each event.”
While Vitor, Saymon and Guto are relative new to the international scene, Alvaro has been competitive since 2013 when he placed second at the FIVB World Championships in Poland with Ricardo Santos. Alvaro validated his world championship success by winning the next 2013 FIVB stop in Switzerland with Ricardo.
In 2014, Alvaro won the Polish Grand Slam in Stare Jablonki in his first of two events that season with Pedro Solberg. When Pedro started playing with Evandro Goncalves in 2015, Alvaro formed a partnership with Vitor. The Maceió Open is the first “final four” appearance for Alvaro and Vitor as the pair finished fifth at the 2015 FIVB World Championships in The Netherlands where the pair was eliminated by Evandro and Pedro.
GOING FOR GOLDIn the Maceió Open gold medal match, second-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena of the United States will challenge the top-seeded Evandro and Pedro for the $11,000 first-place prize. The Americans advanced to the finals by out-lasting 11th-seeded Vitor and Alvaro 2-1 (21-17, 20-22, 15-10) in the 58-minute semi-final match Saturday event. Evandro and Pedro, advanced to the finale with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win in 38 minutes over the 28th-seeded Saymon and Guto.
WEEK OFF BEFORE RIOFollowing the Maceió Open, the FIVB World Tour will take a week off before resuming competition March 8-13 on famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the first grand slam event on the 2015-2016 international Beach Volleyball calendar with an $800,000 purse.