The Hague, The Netherlands, June 14, 2017 - For the second-straight FIVB World Tour event, Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner have eliminated one of the top-seeded qualifying teams as the Czech Republic pair posted two wins here Wednesday at the US$150,000 Dela Beach Open highlighted by a victory over the No. 1 duo from Norway.
Seeded 16th in the 24-team qualifier, Perusic and Schweiner scored a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) victory in 33 minutes over top-seeded Daniel Bergerud/Christian Sorum of Norway to advance to Thursday’s opening Main Draw “modified” pool play rounds in the FIVB World Tour event at the Sportcampus Zuiderpark.
Perusic and Schweiner, who ousted the fifth and 12th-seeded teams two weeks ago at the FIVB stop in Moscow, opened play Wednesday with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) win in 28 minutes over 17th-seeded Ruslan Bykanov/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia. Playing in four World Tour qualifiers this season, the Czech pair has a 6-1 record in the preliminary rounds with five of the victories over higher-seeded tandems.
With women’s FIVB World Tour competition also being played on the outdoor center court and the two inside rectangles for Beach Volleyball at the newly-constructed multifunctional sports and education center, the Dela Beach Open also marks the first-time that a FIVB World Tour event is also being held at the same site of a FIVB World League indoor stop.
While the Beach Volleyball action started Tuesday with nearly 30 countries represented in the field for the FIVB World Tour events, The Netherlands will host teams from Korea, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in FIVB World League Volleyball action Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Sportcampus Zuiderpark.
Other teams posting two wins each Wednesday to advance to the “money” rounds were ninth-seeded Lorenz Schumann/Julius Thole of Germany, 13th-seeded Trevor Crabb/Sean Rosenthal of the United States, 22nd-seeded Jan Pokersnik/Nejc Zemljak of Slovenia and 22nd-seeded Murat Giginoglu/Sefa Urlu of Turkey.
The Germans advanced with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) win over eighth-seeded Julian Horl/Alexander Huber of Austria while the Americans second victory was a 2-0 (21-12, 21-19) triumph over fourth-seeded Mykola Babich/Iaroslav Gordieiev of the Ukraine and the Turks posted a 2-1 (20-22, 21-18, 20-18) elimination decision over sixth-seeded Julian Azaad/Nicolas Capogrosso of Argentina.
In the final match of Wednesday’s qualifier on an indoor court at the Sportcampus Zuiderpark, Pokersnik and Zemlja overcame a first-set setback to post a 2-1 (18-21, 21-12, 15-5) win over second-seeded Julio Nascimento and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar.
Qualifying for the Dela Beach Open Main Draw with one triumph each Wednesday were third-seeded Armin Dollinger/Jonathan Erdmann of Germany, fifth-seeded Vitor Felipe/George Wanderley of Brazil (and seventh-seeded Robin Seidl/Tobias Winter of Austria.
