2015-06-10 08:15:00 CEST
Wednesday Preview: Things get serious in Stavanger
With 24 men's Qualification matches and 32 women's Main Draw bouts, day two of the Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series will see more than 48 hours of action, with some of the best in the sport battling toward Olympic qualifying points in Stavanger, Norway on June 10.
Photocredit: FIVB
It's a good thing the days are long in Scandinavia this time of year. The world's best beach volleyball players have assembled in Stavanger, Norway, for the second stop of the new Swatch Major Series, and on day two of the tournament – Wednesday, June 10 – each of the four courts will be crammed with action virtually nonstop for more than 12 hours. Women's teams will kick off Main Draw battles and men will launch their Qualifying campaigns, all to whittle down the field aiming for the medals, Olympic qualifying points and prize money to be awarded Saturday and Sunday.
The surprise of the week so far is that the expected top seeds, Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes, have withdrawn from the Stavanger Major only days after a June 6 triumph at the Poreç Major, their sixth consecutive win in a row. According to reports on Tuesday evening, the decision was due to an injury sustained by Talita; because of the lateness of the withdrawal, the teammates were unavailable for comment.
Photocredit: FIVB
The 32 women's teams in the Main Draw will see this as an open door, and fans can expect an all-out melee on Wednesday as reinvigorated players pursue their chance to make a push for the top step of the podium. However, another intimidating Brazilian duo who have claimed the top seed position, Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas, will be trying to shut that door, as will their fourth-seeded countrywomen Juliana Felisberta and Maria Antonelli, the reigning World Tour champions, plus two additional Brazilian teams. Reigning European Champions Madelein and Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands have the second seed.
Brazil will also be well represented in the men's Qualification rounds on Wednesday, with top-seeded Alvaro Filho and Vitor Felipe taking on a pair of brothers from Denmark, Oliver and Sebastian Kaszas. Former World Champion Marcio Araujo of Brazil, 41, will face a do-or-die Qualification battle – against the fifth-seeded Polish team Michal Bryl and Jakub Szalankiewicz – with a new young partner he's grooming, 21-year-old Saymon Barbosa. Said Araujo, “It's a lot of pressure, it's a mental game.”
The men's teams who survive that game will have even bigger challenges as the week goes on and players like Beach Volleyball World Champions (and last week's Poreč Major winners) Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen enter the fray.
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