The number of teams registered for this week's Corrientes Grand Slam is a bit bizarre. There were 18 teams for qualification on the women's side and 28 on the men's, leading to some slightly awkward qualification brackets. Day zero in Corrientes was today for both the men and the women, in contrast to the events in China. This week the women will finish their tournament a day before the men, in contrast to the China events. The difference in the schedule is Friday, when pool play ends for everybody and the women have the first two knockout rounds, while the men will have only the first knockout round that day.
Let's get to it.
Etchegaray/Verzzali vs. Gunnarsson/Brinkborg
I slept a little too long and missed the first slate of matches, so this was the first I was able to see on the day. This match was highly entertaining, and for a slightly unusual reason — the crowd. Whenever the Argentina team so much as sided out, the encouragingly large crowd cheered like they'd just won the whole tournament. I love the team spirit/national pride/whatever. It had to enhance the experience for Etchegaray and Verzzali, too, to play in front of their home fans and have them be so boisterously supportive, though they may have enjoyed it a little too much, as they played to the crowd directly a couple of times. Focus on the match and on your opponents, boys.
And there may have been a measure of cheering on the underdog, too, because the Swedes were flatly the better team on the court. They took the first set by a commanding 21-11 count (after first getting set point at 20-9) and after a stalemate through the first couple of side changes, they seized control in set 2 as well. The Argentina team were able to side out a little bit better in set 2, but they rarely scored on serve themselves. From 11-10 on reception at the halfway point, the Swedes went ahead 16-12 on service at the fourth side change, and the crowd started to get a bit quieter. But don't get me wrong — only a bit. They were still big into it. They erupted again after a long rally on 17-13 went to their boys, and showed their support with a "¡Sí se puede!" chant ("You can do it!"). But ultimately, that was a lie, as Sweden closed out the second set, and the match, 21-14.
Gabathuler/Weingart vs. Hupfer/Murauer
Don't really know either of these teams. Among the matches slated to play at this hour was the women's match I would have most liked to see (Dampney/Boulton vs. Broder/Valjas), but only men's matches were slotted for centre court today. Fair play….I guess…. because for an Argentinian crowd there really was not a compelling match to be had at this hour.
The Swiss team seemed pretty solidly the better of the two in this match, as the boisterous Argentinian crowd seemed to all be sitting on their hands for this one. A long rally went to the Austrians on serve (eliciting almost no audible reaction) to keep them within 2 points after two side changes. The Swiss had a shot to go up by 5 at the halfway point as terrific sprawling defence kept a ball alive, and then they could have had a shot to set their offence again after digging the subsequent swing from the Austrian side. Just one problem — both players tried to play the swing, and the digging player's pass went to no one. His partner had run behind him to attempt a deeper cover. That's a miscue in execution and communication, but only a small one, and it did not hamper the team going forward. Play was briefly stopped before the 15-10 rally, on the Swiss serve, as the Austrians had a chat with the up ref. Whatever they were protesting wasn't obvious. The Swiss team extended their advantage all the way to seven at 17-10, with the Austrians siding out ahead of the fourth side change. The first set final came soon after, at 21-14.
It was a bit more of the same in set 2, as the crowd now weren't just quiet, they had dispersed entirely. The bleachers were pretty jam-packed for the Argentine match, but as this match wore on, there were only just a small contingent of people walking around on them. And they blocked no one's view. Gabathuler and Weingart led 13-8 at the halfway point, and while the Austrians closed to within 2 a few times, they never drew even, the Swiss side taking a 21-18 second set. At least they got a modest victory cheer, from an otherwise pretty coldly apathetic remaining "crowd." Obviously the home fans will mostly care about the home teams, but I hope that behaviour changes at least a little for the main draw.
Doppler/Horst vs. Ramos/CHARLY
That's how the scoreboard identified him, anyway. It must be a Madonna thing. His nombre real is Carlos Rangel.
As could likely be expected, the Austrian tandem of previous World Tour medallists were pretty solidly the better team on the court. Some combination of great serving pressure and poor reception on the Venezuelan side (tough to know where one ends and the other begins sometimes) helped edge them out to an early 8-3 lead. The Austrians made it 10-4 after an over-dig rebounded off the Venezuelan player on the other side and out. That's a play you see more notable teams make 10 times out of 10 (keeping the ball alive at the very least), so I think it does probably reflect a lapse in execution on the part of Ramos and CHARLY. The 15-7 rally demonstrated the stark gulf in talent between the two sides, as Doppler's serve was just barely legally returned, with Ramos diving out of camera range to keep the ball alive to lead CHARLY to hit a pretty soft roll shot. Before Ramos was back in the play, Doppler hit a little roll shot on 2 himself, to completely unoccupied court as CHARLY had instinctively broken the other way. A later ace for Doppler extended the Austrians to a 19-9 lead, going up 10 for the first time, and they quickly thereafter closed it out at 21-12.
It looked like the Austrians were set to absolutely roll again in set 2, taking four of the first five points for a quick lead. But Ramos responded with a couple of great blocks at the net to keep his team close at the first side change, and further blocking pressure led to some mishits on the Austrian side to make the set even again at 6-all. On 7-6, CHARLY chose to abandon a serve he could have easily played, and paid the price as it fell for in for an ace. The Austrians made it 12-9 at the halfway point, and for as better as the Venezuelans were playing in set 2, they still never took the lead at any point. Doppler scored back-to-back aces to run the Austrian advantage to 15-9, and the Venezuelans never threatened a comeback from there. The final in set 2 was 21-14.
Grimalt/Grimalt vs. Gunnarsson/Brinkborg
Quite a different crowd (plainly — lack thereof) for this Swedish team's second trip to centre court. I'm sure their first match was bracketed for a second-round centre court appearance in case the Argentina team won, and that makes sense. Early on their play was starkly different too, as they were forced into an early timeout (awkward turn of phrase — are you ever truly "forced" to take a timeout?) down 5-1. They battled back and whittled away, and trailed by just a point, on service, at the halfway mark. After getting one more on serve to tie the set, the Chileans finally sided back out, and we were effectively back to square one. The Swedes took their first lead of the set at 14-13 with a service ace that looked to land wide, but it was ruled in. It was one of those where whichever flagger made the call had to do so from across the court. From there, the Swiss team really seized control, running it out to 18-13 and prompting a Chilean timeout. The Swedes reached set point first at 20-15 and finished it off on reception at 21-16.
The Grimalt brothers held the lead early in set 2, going up 8-6 on service after two side changes, but Gunnarsson and Brinkborg quickly equalised matters at 9-all. That held steady to the essentially-still-tied mark of 11-10 Chile on service at the halfway mark. The Chileans got the first point after the timeout to go up 12-10, but the Swedes quickly equalised again, and then it was sideout after sideout for a long stretch. The Swedes reached match point at 20-19, but gave it away with a service error into the net. A wide hit from the Chilean side ended it at 22-20. As the Swedish tandem roared with delight, the dejection was easily as apparent on the side of their South American foes.
Vitor Felipe/Evandro vs. Hernandez/Fañe
It seems Hevaldo and Thiago withdrew from the tournament, as by points it should have been them in the qualifier and not this Brazilian team. It's actually the Venezuelans who had the higher seed coming into this match (6 against 11), but I still was expecting Vitor and Evandro to romp. The teams messed with my head a little with their colour choices. The Venezuelans wore green singlet tops, the exact green hue I'm fairly certain I've seen scores of Brazilian teams wear, while the Brazilians themselves donned powder blue.
Speaking of scores (whatta segue, I know) the Brazilians led early and often in this one. They took five of seven points ahead of each of the first two side changes, to take the 10-4 lead after fourteen rallies. The lead was 13-8 at the halfway point, as the Venezuelans started to play a bit more even as the set went on. They cut into the gap in advance of the fifth change, making it as close as 18-16. An ace from the Venezuelan side got them back within a point at 19-18 — pretty impressive after they first fell down 10-4, but they were not able to draw even, as Vitor and Evandro closed it out 21-19.
The Brazilians started out in control again in set 2, leading by three at 9-6. This presaged an impressive 5-1 run for the Venezuelans to take the slender lead at the halfway timeout. It went sideout after sideout through to 15-all, at which point the Brazilians took three straight to prompt the Venezuelans to call timeout. Prompt the timeout, yeah. That makes much more sense than 'forcing' the timeout. That one little run was enough to prove the difference, as Brazil sided their way out to victory at 21-16 in the 2nd. The Venezuelans certainly played tighter than I was expecting, but ultimately this was a pretty predictable result.
Cès/Rowlandson vs. Koreng/Walkenhorst
This was, seemingly pretty quickly, the last match of the day. The Germans took the early lead, edging ahead in the first two slates of seven to lead 8-6 after two side changes. On 9-7, Walkenhorst got the kill to extend them to a 3-point lead….and a quick and slightly heated exchange with the up referee. Not sure what you can be protesting when you win the point. The French team responded with three of four to close to 11-10 at the midpoint. While the first half of the set seemed generally pretty close, even when teams did run off little two or three-point mini-runs, from the midpoint on it was effectively all Germany. They cruised to a 6-point lead first at 18-12, got set point at 20-13, and closed it out 21-14.
In set 2, the French team kept pace in the 'first half' just as they had in set 1 — this time it was them who led 11-10 at the midpoint. In contrast to the first stanza, however, the match continued to be close and competitive thereafter. 15-14 was a most unusual rally, lasting close to a minute and ending with the German team sending over a free ball that the French abandoned, seemingly thinking it was going to fly long. It didn't — it landed well in, and gave the Germans the first 2-point lead either side had had in quite some time.
At that point my feed cut out, only to come back in the 3rd set with the French team up 5-3, so they must have staged a nice run to close out the 2nd. The Germans rattled off 4 straight to take a 7-5 lead, but from there the French responded with 3 straight again to go back ahead 8-7. The Germans then sided out to make it 8-all, really hammering home that but for that one run in the second half of the first set, these were two pretty evenly-matched teams. The Germans next went ahead 11-9, prompting the French team to call time, but this was not to be the advantage that held up. They extended to 13-9 before the French made it back to 13-11 to prompt the Germans to call time. The Germans got the sideout to reach match point at 14-11, but the French team staved off three straight, some iffy German service reception helping them out. After a few deuce points, Koreng and Walkenhorst finished the match off 17-15, getting the kill on a rally where Cès and Rowlandson appeared to stop playing in anticipation of a ball handling call. They got no such call, and their tournament ended.
Full Qualification Results
Men's First Round
Ramos/CHARLY (VEN) d. Rivera/Soto (PUR) (18-21, 21-19, 15-11)
Saxton/Schalk (CAN) d. Vesely/Dumek (CZE) (21-14, 21-17)
Ingrosso/Ingrosso (ITA) d. Hatch/Schachter (CAN) (21-19, 21-19)
Grimalt/Grimalt (CHI) d. Bergerud/Kjemperud (NOR) (21-15, 21-13)
Gunnarsson/Brinkborg (SWE) d. Echegaray/Verzzali (ARG) (21-11, 21-14)
Lario/De Amo (ESP) d. Redmann/Binstock (CAN) (21-19, 11-21, 17-15)
Vesik/Kollo (EST) d. Kunert/Petutschnig (AUT) (21-17, 21-16)
Vitor Felipe/Evandro (BRA) d. Kissling/Kissling (SUI) (21-19, 20-22, 15-8)
Hernandez/Fañe (VEN) d. DeBruyn/Fecteau-Boutin (CAN) (21-15, 21-16)
Gabathuler/Weingart (SUI) d. Hupfer/Murauer (AUT) (21-14, 21-18)
Jackson/Leon (VEN) d. Martinez/Salinas (CHI) (21-14, 21-16)
Cès/Rowlandson (FRA) d. Slick/Jennings (USA) (21-19, 21-18)
Second Round
Doppler/Horst (AUT) d. Ramos/CHARLY (VEN) (21-12, 21-14)
Ingrosso/Ingrosso (ITA) d. Saxton/Schalk (CAN) (22-20, 19-21, 15-11)
Gunnarsson/Brinkborg (SWE) d. Grimalt/Grimalt (CHI) (21-16, 22-20)
Huber/Seidlt (AUT) d. Lario/De Amo (ESP) (21-15, 14-21, 15-13)
Semenov/Koshkarev (RUS) d. Vesik/Kollo (EST) (23-25, 22-20, 15-9)
Vitor Felipe/Evandro (BRA) d. Hernandez/Fañe (VEN) (21-19, 21-19)
Gabathuler/Weingart (SUI) d. Jackson/Leon (VEN) (22-24, 21-18, 15-12)
Koreng/Walkenhorst (GER) d. Cès/Rowlandson (FRA) (21-14, 19-21, 17-15)
Women's Play-in Round
(It was only two matches, so it seems silly to call it the 'first round')
Klopf/Teufl (AUT) d. Pati/Michelle (PAR) (23-21, 21-18) So much for the 15-year-old
Grawender/Lundqvist (SWE) d. Whitaker/MacTavish (CAN) (14-21, 21-19, 18-16)
Qualification
Maria Clara/Carolina (BRA) d. Klopf/Teufl (AUT) (21-15, 21-15)
Bieneck/Großner (GER) d. Kolosninska/Brzostek (POL) (21-16, 21-19)
Hansel/Schützenhöfer (AUT) d. Galindo/Galindo (COL) (21-19, 21-19)
Dampney/Boulton (GBR) d. Broder/Valjas (CAN) (19-21, 23-21, 15-10) I knew I wanted to see this match
Pavan/Bansley (CAN) d. Forrer/Vergé-Dépré (SUI) (14-21, 29-27, 15-13) Only bright spot on an otherwise pretty rough day for Canada
Day/Ross (USA) d. Fopma/Sweat (USA) (21-12, 14-21, 15-10) A few people on twitter bemoaned the fact that the two American teams had to face each other. Sorry guys, but no sympathy from me this week 😛
Gioria/Giombini (ITA) d. Orquidea/Mosquera (VEN) (21-14, 21-11)
Mashkova/Tsimbalova (KAZ) d. Grawender/Lundqvist (SWE) (21-14, 22-20)
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