With the first round in the books, 16 duos remain in contention for main draw spots

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Swiss Marco Krattiger and Nico Beeler will be the next opponents of the Grimalts (Photocredit: FIVB)

For the first time in the Beach Major Series this season, the men’s qualification tournament of the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch was split in two days and after the conclusion of the first round 16 teams will return to the courts on Wednesday to compete for the eight last main draw spots.

The deciding games will be played on Wednesday’s afternoon and duos from 13 countries remain in contention for a main draw berth.

Among the teams that won their matches and placed themselves in position to advance on Wednesday are the Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt. The South Americans, who played in Vienna just two days after they won the first-ever World Tour gold medal in their country’s history, in Tokyo, had a 2-0 (23-21, 21-16) victory over Sweden’s Martin Appelgren and Simon Bohman in the first round.

After failing to qualify in the Swatch Major Gstaad, the Chileans are focused on getting in to the main draw in the Danube Island. They will now play Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger and Nico Beeler.

“We’ve played a lot of qualification tournaments this year and most of the times it went all, but we lost in Gstaad even playing a good match against the Belgians and it was good to win in Tokyo right after it as it didn’t let our confidence be down for any longer,” Esteban commented. “It’s always a lot of pressure to play in the qualification as one setbacks means you’re going home empty-handed, so it’s very important to control your feelings and play as relaxed as possible.”

Brazilians Ricardo Santos and Guto Carvalhaes, who won a country-quota match on Monday,  also are one step closer to their first-ever main draw appearance in the Beach Major Series as the legendary blocker and the up-and-comer defender prevailed over Lithuania’s Marius Malinauskas and Artur Vasiljev in straight sets (21-10, 21-17). They will play for a main draw berth with other team from the country, the one of Lukas Kazdailis and Arnas Rumsevicius.   

“We looked for video of them but couldn't find much, so it wasn't easy to prepare,” Guto commented. “Playing against a team you don't know is never easy, but that's how it is on qualifiers. But we played well, did what had to do and things worked our way. For us, who were coming from the country-quota, it's good that the qualifier was split in two days here as we won't have to play twice in the same day."

Click here to see the results and Wednesday’s schedule.

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