Defending Champions Upset Olympic Champions At Patria Direct Open

The 2010 international Beach Volleyball season has not been the best of times for Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal of the United States, but the defending champions at this week’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour posted a pair of back-to-back victories in the winner’s bracket here Thursday for the first-time to lead the field into the next rounds of competition.

With the SWATCH FIVB World Tour returning to the Czech Republic capital for the first-time since 2008, Gibb and Rosenthal extended their Prague winning streak to eight-straight matches by defeating pairs from Russia and the United States at the US$190,000 Patria Direct Open on a side court at the Štvanice Stadium on the River Vitava.

Seeded 17th in the 32-team double-elimination Main Draw in the sixth of 14 men’s events on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar this season , Gibb and Rosenthal’s second win Thursday was over top-seeded American rivals Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers in the 49th domestic and/or international meeting between the two teams since May 2006.

After opening with a 21-12 and 21-14 win in 37 minutes over 16th-seeded Serguei Prokopiev and Yury Bogatov of Russia, Gibb and Rosenthal advanced with seven other unbeaten teams to the third-round of the winner’s bracket with a 21-14 and 23-21 win in 46 minutes over the top-seeded and reigning Olympic Dalhausser and Rogers.  The series between the Americans now stands at 38-11 for Dalhausser and Rogers, including a 6-4 edge in FIVB matches.

“We have really been struggling this year,” said the 34-year old Gibb, who teamed with Rosenthal to place fifth at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.  “The big difference today was Sean’s serving along with our ability to side out effectively.  Any times you beat Phil and Todd, you have posted a great win.  This should really help our confidence, but tomorrow we face more tough teams starting with the Poles.”

Gibb and Rosenthal, who captured the 2008 Patria Direct Open title by winning six matches with a 21-13 and 23-21 gold medal win over Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann of Germany, have not placed higher than ninth in their last nine SWATCH FIVB World Tour starts.  The Americans placed ninth in the Russian Grand Slam last week after being eliminated by Dalhausser and Rogers 21-14 and 21-8 in Moscow.

Eighth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland will be Gibb and Rosenthal’s first opponent Friday with the victorious team advancing to quarter-final match later in the afternoon against fifth-seeded Penggen Wu/Linyin Xu of China or 13th-seeded Pedro Cunha/Thiago Santos Barbosa of Brazil.   Gibb and Rosenthal defeated the Poles earlier this year in a three-set match in Shanghai.

“This season has been tough with all the travel,” said 29-year old Rosenthal.   “The good thing is that we are 8-0 in Prague.  We love the city, we love the people, we love the food and we especially love the facility.  Today’s two wins were really important for us mentally as we had not been playing well lately.”

While the wins by the Poles and Chinese were expected due to their seedings as Wu and Xu captured their country’s first men’s FIVB Beach Volleyball gold medal this past Monday by defeating Dalhausser and Rogers in the three-set Moscow finale.  The second victory by Cunha and Thiago was a 21-13 and 21-19 in 36 minutes over fourth-seeded Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain.

To open play in the lower half of the Winner’s bracket Friday, second-seeded Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego of Brazil and third-seeded Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann of Germany will be challenged by seventh-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Shuil of The Netherlands and 27th-seeded Igor Kolodinsky/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia respectively.  Koshkarev is a replacement for Kolodinsky’s regular partner Dmitri Barsouk, who is out with shoulder problems.  The Russians defeated the 11th- and sixth-seeded teams Thursday.

Sixteen other teams remain in the double-elimination tournament, including Dalhausser/Rogers and Gavira/Herrera.  Following Friday’s 22-match schedule, Saturday’s play will be highlighted by the semi-finals with the medal matches Sunday where the gold medal winning team will share the $30,000 first-place prize.