Gstaad, Switzerland, July 11, 2019 - A total of 16 men's and eight women's team will be eliminated here Thursday from the US$600,000 Swatch Major Gstaad as the second of five days of main draw play features the conclusion of pool play for both genders and the first knock out round for men.
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All eight men's groups were decided Wednesday as newly-crowned world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Oleg Stoyanovskiy were defeated in Pool B as the second-seeded Russians dropped a 2-1 (14-21, 22-20, 15-12) decision in 51 minutes to 15-seeded Alison Cerutti/Alvaro Filho of Brazil.
With the win, Alison and Alvaro advanced to Round of 16 in the elimination phase of the competition with Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy competing in the opening elimination round Thursday afternoon against a third-place finishers from a pool as determined by a mid-day draw.
Two other men's teams posted seed-break-through wins to claim their pool’s leadership and earn a bye into Friday's second-round of elimination, including 14th-seeded Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan of Qatar and 23rd-seeded Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter of Canada.
Cherif Samba of Qatar
Pedlow and Schachter advanced to Friday's schedule by defeating seventh-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-12) in a 47-minute Pool G match while 14th-seeded Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan of Qatar captured Pool C by defeating third-seeded Ilya Leshukov/Konstantin Semenov of Russia 2-1 (23-21, 19-21, 15-13) in 40 minutes.
In the women's competition, second-seeded and new world championships Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada won their opening match Wednesday along with the other top-eight seeded teams, Humana-Paredes and Pavan play 15th-seeded Maria Antonelli and Carolina Salgado of Brazil late Thursday afternoon for the Pool B title.
Humana-Paredes and Pavan are the defending women's Swatch Major Gstaad champion. Anders Mol and Christian Sorum captured the 2018 Gstaad men’s gold medals and opened defense of their title Wednesday by defeating pairs from Switzerland and Russia to win Pool A.
With the Swatch Major Gstaad celebrating its 20th anniversary, the FIVB World Tour event concludes Saturday for men and Sunday for women. The winning teams will share the $40,000 first-place prize.