Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016 – Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk heaped more misery on Pedro Salgado and Evandro Goncalves by fighting back to beat the Brazilians and claim their first win of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games beach volleyball tournament on Tuesday.
Both teams went into the match having lost their opening fixture, but as third ranked side Pedro and Evandro were heavily favoured to beat the Canadians. After they won the first set Saxton and Schalk dug deep to take the match to a tie-break that they won when Saxton’s shot dropped into the Brazilians’ side off the top of the net.
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Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez also had to keep their focus after their match went to a tie-break against Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins.
The Cuban pair upset Pedro and Evandro in their first match and they reinforced their status as outsiders by shrugging a 19-16 deficit to come back and beat the Latvians. Samoilovs and Smedins won the second set, but were unable to catch Diaz and Gonzalez once they had built up a five-point lead in the tie-break.
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Things were more straight forward for Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena, who secured their second win in two.
The US pair beat cross-border rivals Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) to take their place in the round of 16.
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Joining them there are Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst, who fought a tough three-set against European rivals Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel.
The Dutch duo appeared to be set fair for a 2-0 win but the Polish pair maintained their concentration and won the second set. In the tie-break they were unable to find a way past the long limbs of Varenhorst at the net, much to the delight of a number of Netherlands fans in the crowd.
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Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo made a welcome return to form after losing their opening match to Ontiveros and Virgen.
They saw off Tunisia’s Mohamed Naceur and Choaib Salah 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) and will now face Dalhausser and Lucena in their final pool match.
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Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov also added a second win by beating Chile’s Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) to book their place in the round of 16.
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