Cunha-Ricardo claimed gold-ware at 2012 Silesia Open – Volleyball news
The final match of 2012 Silesia Open men’s beach volleyball tournament which took place on Sunday, April 29, was an all-Brazilian affair.
Top-seeded Brazilian tandem of Pedro Henrique Cunha and Ricardo Alex Costa Santos came into stride with compatriots Marcio Araujo and Pedro in the final showdown. The former duo proved to be better and settled for gold medal victory.
Cunha-Ricardo finished the match in three sets, 2-1 (21-8, 19-21, 15-13). It took them 53 minutes to launch power on the rival side. The beach of Myslowice in Poland set up the field for the thrilling encounter and a large number of beach volleyball enthusiasts
witnessed the performance.
Ricardo and Cunha displayed great action on the net and sailed through 21-8 win in the opening stanza. The pairing of Marcio and Pedro responded with 21-19 win in the second set and brought to game to an event point, 1-1.
After the tie of game score at the end of second set, the match entered 15-point golden set. It was nerve-racking experience for both teams and the thousands of spectators screamed out their lungs by chanting different slogans.
The decisive third set started and both sides tried to take lead. Marcio-Pedro led the scores at first set but then fell down. Cunha-Ricardo went up with two-point-lead at 11-9. Ricardo was keen at digging and diving, which benefitted his team.
Meanwhile, Marcio-Pedro continued putting more and more effort, and finally tied the score at 12-all. The next tied was created 13-all but Ricardo-Cunha managed to dismantle the power of opponents and claimed final set with narrow gap of two points, 15-13.
Cunha expressed delight about their wonderful victory. He stated, “This was a great game, full of emotions and with great points and a lot of support from the crowd. It has been a great week for us; we remained unbeaten all the way. This is a big win towards
our qualification for the Olympics. They are our greatest rivals, but it is not over yet.”
With success in the influential final match, Cunha and Ricardo settled for prize money of $30,000 and they also earned 600 ranking points. On the other hand, the Marcio-Pedro bagged shared money of $21,000 as runner-up duo. Besides, they finished the competition
with a total of 540 points.
It has been less than a year that Ricardo formed partnership with Cunha as they became a team last July. Formerly, Ricardo played alongside Marcio and did pretty well.
Nonetheless, the duo split up in July, 2011 and both players formed new teams. Ironically, the two of them faced each other in the final of Silesia Open in Myslowice, Poland. Ricardo’s side proved to be better and claimed winning status.
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