First two men’s Pool Play rounds complete at FIVB Fortaleza Open

Fortaleza, Brazil, April 27, 2016 — Growing up in the shadows of all the iconic Brazilian beach volleyball players while earning medals in FIVB Age Group World Championships to wait their turn to become stars on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, part of the next generation teams of Brazilian stars has reunited and Wednesday in their home country. Fifth-seeded Vitor Felipe and Alvaro Filho won both of their first two pool play matches during the first day of men’s main draw play at the FIVB Fortaleza Open.Brazil’s Vitor/Alvaro, both now 25, defeated teams from Switzerland and Austria assuring themselves to advance from their final pool play match Thursday to the single-elimination rounds at this week’s double-gender $150,000 FIVB Fortaleza Open, which marks the first time since 2007 that the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour has played in Fortaleza.The double-gender $150,000 FIVB Fortaleza Open started Tuesday and concludes on Sunday. It is the 11th men’s event of the season and eighth women’s event on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015. The FIVB Fortaleza Open is being played at the purpose built stadium at Praia do Futuro in Fortaleza, site of last week’s season finale of the Brazilian National Tour.On Wednesday, Brazil’s fifth-seeded Vitor/Alvaro opened pool play by defeating Switzerland’s 28th-seeded Quentin Metral/Michiel Zandbergen in straight sets, 21-17, 21-15 in 37 minutes. In their second match, Vitor/Felipe stopped Austria’s 21st-seeded Peter Eglseer/Daniel Mullner, 21-16, 21-15 in 34 minutes.On Thursday, Brazil’s Vitor/Alvaro complete pool play by challenging Austria’s 12th seeded Christoph Dressler/Thomas Kunert, also 2-0 in their pool in pool-deciding early-morning match.ALVARO PLEASEDFollowing the morning match Alvaro was mildly pleased with his team’s performance. “We started out very slow, moving in slow motion and got behind by five points early in the first set, so we called time out and said to each other ‘wake up we can win in two sets’ and fortunately, we did battle back won the first set,” remarked Alvaro after their opening win. “After that we had our rhythm and stayed in control to win the match in two. Vitor and I have played together since we were kids and sometimes we need a wake-up call to do go out and do what we can do.”FORTALEZA SCHEDULEThe FIVB Fortaleza Open is a double-gender event with 31 main draw teams for men and 28 for women. For the men, a qualification tournament on Tuesday was held to determine the final spot in the main draw followed by two days of round robin pool play. The top three teams in the eight pools (24 total teams) will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds. Women begin their pool play on Thursday and conclude on Friday.On Saturday, the quarterfinals and semifinals for both genders will be played. The medal matches for both genders will all be played on Sunday with the awarding ceremony following the last gold medal match concluding the event.VITOR/ALVARO GRIDWhile this is their 11th FIVB World Tour event together, Vitor has played in 42 …

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