Is it just me, or are Summer Ross’ abs scary as hell? (photo credit: Preechachan Wiriyanupappong for Thai newspaper The Nation)
Main draw, day one anyway. If you've been following along you know that the tournament has actually been going on for two days already, but country quota and qualification play rarely (not never, but rarely) produces teams anyone needs to concern themselves with. So my more in-depth coverage begins today, and it's a long, busy day in Bangsaen.
Everybody plays two matches today, whether they win-win, win-lose, lose-win, or lose-lose. Eight teams that lose-lose are eliminated from the tournament today, sharing 25th place. The day's competition actually began before any cameras were turned on, with the German team of Krebs and Laboureur that had looked so strong in qualification losing a by pretty straightforward score of (21-15, 21-14) to the Russian team of Anna Vozakova and Anastasia Vasina. Another Russian team, Stare Jablonki fourth-place finishers Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Khomyakova, survived a three-setter with the thirtieth-ranked Australian tandem Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho by a score of (21-18, 16-21, 15-10).
In contrast to yesterday, it was a lovely day at the beach today, with play going on under partly cloudy, but not temperamental, skies. The first match I got to see, as coincidence would have it, involved the Americans who played in qualification yesterday, Summer Ross and Heather Hughes. And it was a very entertaining match. They played a duo from Vanuatu of all places, Miller Elwin and Henriette Iatika.
This match was on one of the outer courts, and again, lots of whistles were audible, way more than one match's worth. The Americans ran out to a quick 3-1 advantage on Hughes' lefty serve (got to love those lefties). At 5-3, a perfectly-timed block from Ross got them one on serve to go up three. At 7-4, the Vanuatuans (?) ran a nifty play where Elwin sent it over on two for an easy kill (Iatika got most of the serves, even though there's not much difference in size between the two of them). She backed that up with her second service error of the match, though. Mistakes like that will kill you in beach volleyball. The lead stayed right at 2 or 3 points as the teams traded sideouts, until the team from Vanuatu got a point on a carry called against Ross to close to 10-9. They were unable to capitalize and draw even, following up the fault with yet another service error.
The match drew even for the first time at 12 after a block from Elwin. The team from Vanuatu took their first lead when Iatika followed that up with a service ace, prompting the Americans to call time. Hughes' swing went long coming back from the timeout to put the Americans in a 2-point deficit, which grew to 3 on the next point. The momentum had clearly shifted sides. 15-13 was probably the point of the match, with diving defense on both sides ending with a kill for Vanuatu. Ross and Hughes looked just a little bit out of sorts as the first set went on. Volleyball's all about being a well-oiled machine, perfect transitions from offense to defense and vice versa, and they were a bit clumsy. Vanuatu's lead got as high as 5 at one point, with a run on Elwin's serve, and they won the first set 21-16.
Vanuatu took one on serve to begin set two, but Ross put up an emphatic block on the following point to even it up. You could hear Hughes' appreciation — "Yeah Summer!" Elwin's front-line block for Vanuatu was even better early in the second set. Their lead went to 3 at 7-4, and the Americans drew even at 9-9 after a great rally on both sides. Then the Americans re-asserted themselves, taking two on serve afterward. After the timeout at 21 points with the Americans ahead 11-10, the Vanuatu team again drew even at 12. The second set proved much more even than the third, as the next 2-point advantage wasn't until 17-15 for the Americans. Then they took another on serve to go up 18-15, and it was pretty clear we were headed for a race to 15 in the third. The Vanuatu team made a run, but the second set final was 21-19 in the Americans' favour.
The Americans got the critical first 2-point lead in the decider after a hitting error from the other side brought it to 3-1. The Vanuatu team drew even again at 5 though, following a service ace. Their serving was seriously feast-or-famine…the next point was a serve into the net, and so too was their serve on 6-6. Another hitting error gave the Americans the crucial 2-point cushion at 8-6, and yet another service error brought them to 9-7. You can't be giving away points like that, ever really, but certainly not in a race to 15. But an ace drew them even again at 9…I'm just not sure the feast is really worth the famine for them. A let serve on 10-10 barely made it over, and it disturbed the Americans' offense enough that a hitting error was the result, giving Vanuatu the lead for the first time. But the Americans drew it even again at 11, and then went up 12-11 on serve before Vanuatu got a touch called at the net to tie it yet again at 12. This third set was craaaaaaaazy close. The Americans went up two again at 14-12 behind Ross' serve, and finished the match winning the third set on, what else, a service error, 15-13.
I think if these two teams play ten matches, Vanuatu would probably win six of them. At no time did the Americans look like solidly the better team, but for a while the match looked stupidly competitive. Late in the first set, though, Vanuatu certainly looked like the better team, and you can't overstate how much the myriad service errors figured into the result. You just can't give points away like that. But all the same, it's a credit to Summer and Heather and their resiliency and the adjustments they made as the match went on.
Joana Heidrich & Nina Betschart (SUI) vs. Sayaka Mizoe & Anjiera Ishida (JPN)
This match was supposed to start at the bottom of the hour, but with the USA/VAN match going three sets, the schedule was disrupted a little to afford these two teams some warmup time. I took note of the fact that Kessy and Ross' first-round match was in this same timeslot, but I can't really fault the camera for not going to it since it somehow, despite the Olympic silver medalists being easily the biggest-name at the tournament, was not on centre court.
By the seeding, this should have been the most evenly-matched contest of the first round, as the Japanese team carried the #16 seed and the Swiss duo #17. But the team from Japan seemed solidly better from the outset, taking the first 2-point lead at 4-2, extending it to 3 at 7-4, to 4 at 11-7, and 5 at 13-8 in advance of the 21-point timeout. It was a classic beach volleyball set of one team exerting tiny advantages as often as possible. Because, with the exception I guess of that 21-1 match yesterday, you're never gonna have two teams in beach volleyball where there's a gaping chasm of talent between the two teams such as occasionally happens in indoor. In indoor you can apply big advantages constantly (if you've got notably superior blocking, hitting, and serving). It's seldom that way in beach, so you have to find tiny advantages to exploit whenever possible. It's why a 5-point lead in beach is a huge lead, where in indoor, you're one run from an especially strong server away from tying or even coming back to take the lead.
And the Japanese team continued to exert small advantages, going up 6 at 16-10 en route to a 21-15 final. You hear a score like 21-15 and you think, oh, that had to have been *sort of* competitive. It wasn't. The Japanese tandem dominated the first set. The Swiss team scored on serve just once, on a Japanese hitting error; otherwise, they could only side out periodically. And that's not gonna win you any volleyball matches.
The second set wasn't much better as far as competitiveness goes. The Japanese team scored on serve receive to start, and then ticked off two service aces and a solid stuff block to take a 4-0 lead, which prompted the Swiss team to call time. Mizoe and Ishida perhaps felt charitable coming back from timeout, as they promptly hit the ball into the net. At first it looked like they would dominate again, running out to leads at 7-2 and 9-4, but then Betschart and Heidrich closed to within one at 9-8, although only one point from their run on serve was the result of a kill on their side. Mizoe and Ishida responded with a run of their own to go up 12-8, with 12-9 the score at the 21-point timeout. From there, the Japanese team built on their advantage again, going up 5 at 15-10 and 6 at 17-11 en route to a 21-15 second set win to match the first. But for that one brief stretch about a third of the way through the second set, they were obviously the stronger team the whole way.
That marked the end of the first round. Teams that won in the first round advanced to the winner's bracket, where teams that lost went to the somewhat tactlessly-named loser's bracket. Teams in the loser's bracket can still win the tournament overall. They just have to win every single remaining match they have.
Full Round One results:
#1 Holtwick/Semmler (GER) d. #32 Numwong/Hongpak (THA) (21-9, 18-21, 15-12)
#2 Kessy/Ross (USA) d. #31 Kusano/Ozaki (JPN) (24-22, 22-20)
#3 Ukolova/Khomyakova (RUS) d. #30 Clancy/Artacho (AUS) (21-18, 16-21, 15-10)
#4 Vozakova/Vasina (RUS) d. #29 Krebs/Laboureur (GER) (21-15, 21-14)
#5 Agatha/Seixas (BRA) d. #28 Galindo/Galindo (COL) (somehow they made it to the main draw anyway?) (21-11, 22-20)
#6 Tsiartsiani/Arvaniti (GRE) d. #27 Florian/Matveeva (ESP) (21-17, 21-19)
#7 Fendrick/Branagh (USA) d. #26 Solvoll/Treland (NOR) (21-12, 21-7)
#8 Tsimbalova/Mashkova (KAZ) d. #25 Vorlová/Rehácková (CZE) (21-16, 19-21, 15-9)
#9 Sannok/Tenpaksee (THA) d. #24 Kongshavn/Hjortland (NOR) (21-9, 24-22)
#23 Day/Hochevar (USA) d. #10 Radarong/Udomchavee (THA) (20-22, 21-17, 15-6)
#22 Ross/Hughes (USA) d. #11 Elwin/Iatika (VAN) (16-21, 21-19, 15-13)
#12 Broder/Valjas (CAN) d. #21 van der Vlist/Mooren (NED) (19-21, 21-19, 15-12)
#13 Sinnema/Wesselink (NED) d. #20 Nystrom/Lahti (FIN) (21-15, 21-12)
19 Banck/Hüttermann (GER) d. #14 Bieneck/Großner (GER) (25-27, 22-20, 15-8)
#18 Gioria/Giombini (ITA) d. #15 Stiekema/Braakman (NED) (21-19, 24-22)
#16 Mizoe/Ishida (JPN) d. #17 Heidrich/Betschart (SUI) (21-15, 21-15)
Winner's bracket
Holtwick/Semmler vs. Mizoe/Ishida
Sannok/Tenpaksee vs. Tsimbalova/Mashkova
Agatha/Seixas vs. Broder/Valjas
Sinnema/Wesselink vs. Vozakova/Vasina
Ukolova/Khomyakova vs. Banck/Hüttermann
Ross/Hughes vs. Tsiartsiani/Arvaniti
Fendrick/Branagh vs. Day/Hochevar
Gioria/Giombini vs. Kessy/Ross
Loser's bracket
Numwong/Hongpak vs. Heidrich/Betschart
Kongshavn/Hjortland vs. Vorlova/Rehackova
Galindo/Galindo vs. Van der Vlist/Mooren
Nystrom/Lahti vs. Krebs/Laboureur
Clancy/Artacho vs. Bieneck/Großner
Elwin/Iatika vs. Florian/Matveeva
Solvoll/Treland vs. Radarong/Udomchavee
Stiekema/Braakman vs. Kusano/Ozaki
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