Agadir, Morocco, July 21, 2017 – Two Swiss teams managed to break the seeding in the first round of the men’s main draw at the Agadir stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2017. Mirco Gerson followed in the footsteps of his younger sister Dunja from earlier on Friday and qualified for Saturday’s quarterfinals at Plage Jour et Nuit on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.
11th-seeded Mirco Gerson and Michiel Zandbergen from Switzerland upset sixth-seeded French duo Arnaud Loiseau and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat with a 2-1 (12-21, 21-17, 15-13) come-from-behind win in the only first round match that was extended into a tie-breaker. After 45 minutes of play, the Swiss emerged victorious with a well-deserved spot in the quarterfinals.
Gerson and Zandbergen greet each other during the match against France
The other Swiss duo playing on Moroccan sand, 12th-seeded Adrian Heidrich and Gabriel Kissling, also delivered an upset by shutting out the fifth seed in the main draw. Heidrich and Kissling mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) victory over Sweden’s Martin Appelgren and Simon Boman.
Apart from the two teams from Switzerland, one more pair, Raul Mesa and Christian García, managed to break to seeding. The 10th-seeded Spaniards knocked out Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst and Bennet Poniewaz, seeded seventh, with a hard-fought 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) win.
Morocco’s Adil Bsina and Othmane Farabi, seeded 14th, forfeited to Julio Cesar Do Nascimento Junior and Ahmed Tijan during the second set of their match. After 26 minutes of play the third-seeded duo from Qatar fixed the final 2-0 (21-13, 21-2) win.
The remaining four duos to take part in Saturday’s men’s quarterfinals are Finland's Pekka Piippo and Jyrki Nurminen, Iran's Bahman Salemiinjehboroun and Rahman Raoufi, Morocco's Zouheir El Graoui and Mohamed Abicha and France's Youssef Krou and Quincy Aye. The first whistle on Saturday afternoon is scheduled for 16:00 local time.