All roads lead to Rome for US and Brazil teams

The double-gender Rome smart Grand Slam was held from June 18 to 23 for the fourth successive year in Italy’s capital city. 

The teams of Sean Rosenthal and Phil Dalhausser of the USA and Brazil’s Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima gave themselves a huge confidence boost little more than a week before the start of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Poland by taking gold in the men’s and women’s competition.

Men’s competition

USA’s Sean Rosenthal and Phil Dalhausser won their first World Tour gold medals when they held off Latvia’s Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs to take the match 2-0 (21-19, 21-18). It was Rosenthal’s second consecutive gold medal in Rome, a year after he and Jacob Gibb topped the podium.

Brazil's Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Pedro Salgado secured their second consecutive podium finish (after taking gold in The Hague Grand Slam) beating fellow Brazilians Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti 2-0 (21-10, 21-10) in the bronze medal match.

Women’s competition

Brazil’s Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima won their third gold medal on the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour when they beat USA’s Jennifer Kessy and April Ross 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-12), adding to their victories in Shanghai and The Hague.

The bronze medal match saw Brazilians Liliane Maestrini and Barbara Seixas De Freitas take their first FIVB medals together since they claimed the 2007 U21 World Championships after beating Germany’s Britta Buthe and Karla Borger 2-0 (21-17, 21-19).