Maybe it wasn’t so fluky after all. That gold medal run at the Stare Jablonki Challenge last weekend, when Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier won five straight matches – not including a potentially fortuitous forfeit over David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig – to capture their first win as a team, and Dillier’s first ever?
Perhaps that shouldn’t have been such a surprise.
OK.
The 6-13 comeback in the third set, against Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl – that should forevermore be considered a surprise, a fluke, a divine intervention, a miracle, a whatever you’d like to call it. But the victory itself, and not necessarily how it was eventually obtained, seems less and less an aberration the more Krattiger and Dillier play.
On Wednesday, the opening day of the Gstaad Elite, Krattiger and Dillier went 2-0, qualifying for the main draw with a win over countrymen Quentin Metral and Michiel Zandbergen (21-18, 21-16). Hours later, they followed it up with a stunner over No. 5 Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner (21-19, 14-21, 15-12), the 2023 World Champs who have been looking very much like the 2023 World Champs of late, with three medals in four events.
There would be no gold medal hangover here. Not in Gstaad, where noxious things such as hangovers probably cannot even exist, anyway. Instead, Dillier will parlay his first gold medal into his first time breaking pool at home in Gstaad, with the potential of a first-round bye should they beat Brazil’s Evandro and Arthur on Thursday.
The win marked the biggest upset by seed – a 20 beating a 5 – on a wonderfully wild day in Gstaad for the men. Fellow countrymen and qualifiers Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan also emerged from the qualifier to log a first round win, a 16-21, 21-17, 15-12 victory over Argentina’s Capogrosso Brothers. Matthew Immers and Leon Luini rounded out the qualifier winners when they took out the home wild cards, Yves Haussener and Julian Freidli, 15-21, 21-17, 15-11.
Such was the theme of the main draw day: Eight of the 12 pool play matches went to three sets, including a tremendous 21-16, 15-21, 20-18 battle between Australia’s Zach Schubert and Thomas Hodges, the winners, and USA Volleyball’s Chaim Schalk and James Shaw. The nightcap on court two was equally as thrilling, a 23-25, 21-18, 16-14 emotional victory for Cuba’s Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz over George Wanderley and Andre Loyola, who is making a celebrity appearance after taking most of the year off.
Such is the nature of the Beach Pro Tour.
As thrilling as it was on the men’s side, it was equally unkind to USA Volleyball on day one.
Volleyball World photo
Julia Donlin, Lexy Denaburg lone bright spot for USA Volleyball on Gstaad day one
Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin were the lone bright spot for USA Volleyball on the opening day of Gstaad. Three of the four American teams in the qualifier bowed out, with Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst dropping to the Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon and Mila Konink (19-21, 21-18, 15-4), Hailey Harward and Molly Philipps getting swept by the Czech Republic’s Marketa Svozilova and Marie-Sara Stochlova (22-20, 21-15) and Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle losing a pair of overtime sets to France’s Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard (24-22, 24-22).
The men’s side fared little better, with Schalk and Shaw losing an excellent match to Australia, and Andy Benesh and Miles Partain getting swept by Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots (22-20, 21-17).
Which leaves Donlin and Denaburg, the sunny spot in an otherwise gray and rainy day in Switzerland. They came back from a 15-21 opening set loss in the qualifier to Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte to win, 21-13, 15-9, extending their small breakthrough event in Stare Jablonki last weekend. It’s the second straight Elite for which they have qualified, and their reward? A first-round date against Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw at noon local.
Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, the reigning silver medalists, open up main draw play for the USA Volleyball women, against Dutch qualifiers Emi van Driel and Wies Bekhuis. Defending champs Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth match up with Placette and Richard at 11 a.m. local.
