American teams shine at Shanghai Open men’s Main Draw - May 5, 2011

SWATCH WORLD TOUR 2011 China Shanghai Jinshan Open | Men   http://www.fivb.ch/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/Event/viewPressRelease.asp?No=28460 Shanghai, China, May 5, 2011 - Three American teams led by reigning Olympic champions Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers continued their perfect record after the second day of the men’s Main Draw competition at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour Shanghai Jinshan Open drew to a close on Thursday. Top seeded Dalhausser/Rogers, who won nine gold medals on last year's FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour as well as the season-opening Brasilia Open two weeks ago, sailed past Polish eighth seeds Mariusz Prudel and Grzegorz Fijalek 21-17 and 21-14 for their third straight win in Shanghai and ninth in a row on the 2011 Tour. Rogers was satisfied with his strong serving performance that helped the tandem take the match in 38 minutes. “I served some great balls, that’s great,” Rogers said. “They did not play very well, they can play much better if everything is OK, but they missed a lot of services.” Dalhausser and Rogers now move on to the fourth round of the winners’ bracket on Friday morning and take on compatriots Nicholas Lucena/Matthew Fuerbringer, who came from one set down to beat Chinese fifth seeds Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin. Going down tamely in the first set at 21-14, the American fourth seeds fought back fiercely to take the next two sets 21-18 and 15-9. “They are a very good team, one of the top teams, so we are proud of ourselves," Lucena exclaimed after the match. "The second set is very important. We had a good sideout when it was 14-13 and that shifted the momentum. Every team here is unbelievable, we will just take one game at a time.” Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal also joined Dalhausser/Rogers and Lucena/Fuerbringer in USA's unbeaten club with a 21-17 and 21-9 victory over third seeds and 2009 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch world champions Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann from Germany. The other tandem staying in the winners’ bracket after Round Three is Spain’s seventh seeds Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira Collado, who upset second seeded Brazilian duo Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego 21-14 and 28-26 to improve to a 3-0 win-loss record. Alison/Emanuel, who finished runners-up to Dalhausser/Rogers in the Brasilia Open, were eliminated with another loss in the lower bracket later on Thursday. Brazil’s Harley Marques, who had won three titles at the Shanghai Open with Pedro Salgado in the last four years, also crashed out of the double elimination Main Draw tournament with his new partner Thiago Santos Barbosa after falling to sixth seeds Eric Koreng and David “Hase” Klemperer of Germany 14-21, 21-12 and 15-10 in a lower bracket match Thursday morning. Koreng/Klemperer and compatriots Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann, Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik still remain in contention along with Wu/Xu with one defeat each. The Main Draw tournament of the US$380,000 Shanghai Open will continue on Friday with the men’s and women’s medal matches scheduled for Saturday and Sunday respectively. The gold medal teams will split US$30,000, the silver US$21,000 and the bronze US$15,000. This tournament is the second of 12 double-gender events on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, which also includes three single-gender events for women, two single-gender events for men and a special 24-team Olympic test event in London from August 9 to 14.