Ricardo Santos and Pedro Cunha won their second gold medal for the year in the Swatch FIVB World Tour. The Brazilian tandem repeated its success by winning the HP Beach Open in The Hague.In the final match on Sunday the second-seeded Ricardo-Cunha and the experienced home favorites Nummerdor-Schuil had the extreme challenge of fighting not only against the opponents, but also against the hostile Dutch weather. The heavy rain and the strong wind are enemies for every beach volleyball player. Despite the unpleasant conditions Ricardo-Cunha won the final in three sets (15-21, 21-18, 15-8) in less than an hour. Nummerdor-Schuil showed great skills from the serve line at the beginning of the game which helped them win the opening set, but the bronze medalists from the last European Championship in Kristiansand (Norway) considered the bad weather as a reason for the shift of momentum and the comeback of the Brazilians. The silver medal on home soil remains the only one won by the couple from the Netherlands in the World Tour this season.
In the bronze medal match two teams were desperately waiting for their place on the podium – an achievement that none of them has enjoyed throughout the summer. The Czech veterans Benes-Kubala faced the young Russians Semenov-Koshkarev in a battle for a first FIVB medal for any of the four athletes. The victory was on the side of youth in this case as the versatile Russians won in straight sets (21-18, 21-19) to grab their first international beach volleyball medal ever. In some of the previous reports on the World Tour and the World Championship we already marked the significant progress and potential of this duo, so now their hard work over the last months is paid back with a place on the podium.
The 2011 World Tour will officially end in October when the last event of the calendar is expected to be staged. The Moroccan seaside town of Agadir will await the beach stars for one last week of action.
