Jennings, Wong make it to the qualification tournament at Prague Open
The 2011 Prague Open Beach Volleyball Tournament is underway in Czech Republic.
The tournament started off on Tuesday, May 17 with the Country Quota Playoffs. This is the third men’s event featured on the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Calendar but this is the first men’s only gender tournament. The women’s teams have been playing at Myslowice
Open in Poland. The schedule of both events is same but the venues are different.
Around 100 beach volleyball duos from 31 countries of the world entered the Prague Open and countries with more than two teams appeared in the opening stage of Country Quota Playoffs. At the end of the opening day, the successful teams advanced to the Qualification
Tournament, which is supposed to take place on Wednesday, May 18.
American senior duo of Casey Jennings and Kevin Wong was among the lucky ones, who pulled off success in the CQs. Likewise, the teams from host country Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Germany and Brazil booked slots in the Qualification Tournament.
The successful teams of the Qualification Tournament will advance to the 32-team Main Draw stage, which will be followed by the ‘final four’ matches. The Prague Open will complete its run on Sunday, May 22, 2011. The winning duo will split $30,000. In 2010,
American duo of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers clinched gold medal at the Prague Open.
The pairing of Casey Jennings and Kevin Wong clashed with compatriots Ty Tramblie and Michael Morrison in the CQ stage. Jennings/Wong held off their country mates for a straight-set victory. They posted 21-15 and 24-22 in the two consecutive sets.
Jennings opened the match on a strong footing. He supplied plenty of power to the ball, while hitting it over the net. The duo developed a great chemistry between them and perfectly complimented each other.
On the other hand, the pairing of Michael/Tramblie failed to put up with the heavy strike of volleys. They lagged behind and eventually accepted the better status of Jennings/Wong in the opening set of the match.
Following a shaky performance in the opening set, Michael/Tramblie hit back strongly and worked out great shots. Second set of the game was a point-to-point battle as both sides exchanged long rallies and did not miss a chance to score.
The see saw battle as Wong put an end to the tussle. A perfect kill of Wong was enough to capture the second set. Jennings and Wong claimed the second set with a margin of two points (24-22).
Jennings was simply delighted about their success in the country quota playoffs.
He stated, “We only started playing together at the end of last year, competing in Aland and The Hague. We finished 25th in Brasilia and 17th in Shanghai so we do not have enough points to qualify directly.”
He further added that he plans to run the partnership with Wong for next two years and Olympic Title would be their ultimate goal.
Following the completion of Prague Open in Czech Republic and Myslowice Open in Poland, the SWATCH FIVB will make its next stop in China. The beautiful city of Beijing will host the double-gender Grand Slam Tournament, which will run from June 6-11. The
only other FIVB Swatch World Tour men-only event will be held in October, while Moroccan beach city Agadir will set up the field of play.
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