Round-1 of men’s qualifiers at the 2012 Brasilia Open finishes in only three flights
Following the successful completion of Country Quota Playoffs on Tuesday, the 2012 SWATCH FIVB Brasilia Open Men’s Beach Volleyball Tournament entered the qualifying stage on Wednesday, April 18.
A total of the 35 men’s duos jumped on board and kicked off the Round-1 of the Qualification Tournament. According to the set formula of the competition, the teams were supposed to play 32 matches but only three matches were played. Most of the team did
not show up and matches were forfeited.
In the three matches that took place, Venezuela’s Jensen-Nestor, Azaad-Conde of Argentina, and home duo of Luciano-Gilmário grabbed success. All three qualifying matches of Round-1 produced results in straight sets. The winning sides claimed victories with
big margins.
In the opening affair of the day, 33rd-seeded Venezuelan Jensen and Nestor faced off underdog Norwegian tandem of Retterholt-Solhaug. The former duo proved to be better in attack and defence, while team from Norway failed to resist. Nestor of Venezuela hit
with great accuracy and devastated the opponents. Weak defence of Norwegian team helped Venezuela to score easy points. Eventually, the pairing of Jensen/Nestor improved to 1-0 by closing first set at 21-8.
The second set also came successful for Venezuelan tandem as they followed the same approach. Second set ended with identical score of 21-8, while Jensen-Nestor marched away with victory.
In a different court, another match ran parallel to Venezuela vs. Norway contest. The second match featured Martinez-Guillermo of Chilli against Azaad-Conde of Argentina. The Argentinean team finished the match in only 34 minutes and ousted the competitors
with a flurry of attacks. Comparatively saying, this was a better performance by the participating teams than the match, won by Venezuela.
The Chilean duo started out on a good note and showed ambition of victory. However, Argentinean team gradually paced things with back-to-back attacks. They blocked the Chilean counterparts at the low score of 14 and secured opening set. The opening set
win gave more confidence to the Argentinean players and they sailed through the match victory. The set scores were 21-14, 21-12.
The native Brazilian duo of Luciano-Gilmário profited the home advantage in third match of the Round-1. Equipped with emotional support of fans, they downed the comparatively higher ranked Argentinean team. They were challenged by Mehamed-Etchegaray, who
fought bravely but dropped the decision with narrow margin. Brazilian side sent 2-0 (21-18. 21-17) on board to claim better status in the match.
The Round-1 of the competition was followed by Round 2 & 3 matches. At the end of the day, successful teams advanced to the Main-Draw stage slated for Thursday.
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