Surprising as it may sound, Poland had never won a men’s World Tour gold medal before Mariusz Prudel made the last point in the tie-break of the record-breaking Transavia Grand Slam final today in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel stared playing together in 2006 and have formed one of the steadiest partnerships in the recent history of international beach volleyball. Successful in a number of occasions and with a rich medal collection from domestic, European and World Tour events, Fijalek-Prudel, however, were yet to have a taste of being on top during a medal ceremony. And they had waited for some time.
They could not have chosen a more appropriate venue for their country’s historic title – the Transavia Grand Slam broke all FIVB Beach Volleyball net records by offering a total of a million dollars as a reward. The event is also a prelude to next year’s World Championships which will take place in four different cities in The Netherlands for the first time ever – Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam and The Hague. Holland’s greatest port, Rotterdam, did not host matches for this year’s Grand Slam, but will be included in the program for 2015.
In the final on the Scheveningen beach the Poles met familiar opponents. USA’s Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal had won the last two Grand Slams, in Gstaad and Stavanger respectively, and were the number one-seeded team for a reason. Fijalek-Prudel already beat the Americans in a big game this season. That happened in the semifinal at the Moscow Grand Slam when the Poles eventually finished second. An hour was necessary for the new masters of The Hague to end Dalhausser-Rosenthal‘s 20-match winning streak (21-18, 13-21, 15-13).
The opening set went in favour of the Poles thanks to some lucky aces (that came untouched from the top of the net) by Grzegorz Fijalek. Great attack skills and some impressive digs by Rosenthal were the reason for the fast second set. An early advantage in the third set followed by successful sideouts by the Poles were enough for Fijalek and Prudel to finally grab the desired gold medals. They did in the fourth time of asking after three consecutive defeats in their previous World Tour final appearances (Stavanger 2011, Stare Jablonki 2011, Moscow 2014).
Grzegorz Fijalek was cheerful after the final whistle: “I can’t tell you about our tactics, but we defeated the Americans for the second time this year, so we knew how to beat them. In the first set we had a couple of lucky serves. In the second set the situation was changed and they made two or three aces. But if you have three points up, you can win. In the tie-break we played point by point and in the end we got it. We’re going to drink the champagne on our flight to Los Angeles because we don’t have time to celebrate in The Netherlands with our Polish fans.”
The bronze medal match was an all-Brazilian encounter. Emanuel Rego and Pedro Solberg Salgado won their first pair of medals together by coming back from a set-down disadvantage versus fellows Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt (12-21, 21-16, 15-11).
The big cash delivery will not cease with the Transavia Grand Slam. Next week’s Long Beach Grand Slam in Southern California will offer the same money reward. United States will have a Grand Slam tournament for a second season in a row and be sure there will be more action to come.
Pictures: FIVB
