Ostrava Elite Photo Gallery Day 2

Below is Graham Hays’ annotated photo gallery from the second day of the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite 16.

Schoon and Stam vs. Dvornikova and Kleiblova (21-14, 21-16)

On the scoreboard Valerie Dvornikova and Veronika Kleiblova losing 14-21, 16-21 to Katja Stam and Raïsa Schoon barely merits a second glance. It’s sort of perfunctory result with which pool play abounds. But it didn’t always feel that way as mid-morning arrived on Center Court. The Czech team certainly didn’t act like bracket fodder.

Playing in just their third international event together, Dvornikova, 23, and Kleiblova, 20, were also playing their third match on Center Court in approximately 24 hours (after pulling off the three-set upset against Germany’s Bock and Lippmann in qualifying and losing in straight sets to Brasher and Cruz in the opening round of pool matches).

Staying true to your own personality is good advice in most any setting, but it always worries me when a heavy underdog, playing at home, enters any competition stone-faced. It often feels performative, as if they’re going to great lengths to make clear how unaffected they are by their surroundings. The Czechs, by contrast, took the court looking thrilled to have the opportunity—knowing they had earned it.

They stayed positive as the first set quickly slipped away and kept the home crowd with them as a result. And by the time Kleiblova went airborne to keep a ball in play on a point the Czechs eventually won to fuel a mini-rally, Center Court was awake. Perhaps not in the full-throated way it would for the Pavelkovás upsetting Switzerland’s Mäder and Kernen later in the day or Stochlova and Svozilova pushing Brunner and Hüberli to the limit in a 16-14 third set for the Swiss. But like the best opening acts Dvornikova and Kleiblova left an audience eager for more. (All photos by Graham Hays)

Kleiblova goes airborne.

Kleiblova with a memorable block.

Schoon and Stam took control of the match when needed to improve to 2-0.

Tina and Anastasija defeat Anouk and Zoe (24-22, 18-21, 15-13)

With a full day of matches on three courts (and an aging back and knees), you pick your matches and hope for the best, always aware you may miss the best of the day. I didn’t feel cheated after Latvia and Switzerland’s three-set marathon. Without the stakes of elimination, this felt about as competitive as things get in pool play.

Chemistry is something of a theme in all of the matches in this gallery, but I love watching the Latvians work. That’s nothing particularly insightful. Everyone knows the story, how long they’ve played together, the path they took to winning their country’s first world title, all of it. But along with Brasher and Cruz, and their not dissimilar story, there is something marvelously calming about the way Tina and Anastasija play through deficits.

Business folks will probably tell you disruptive energy makes the world go around, that friction fuels progress. But then again, they also take their golden parachutes after a few years and go on to disrupt the next company. When you aren’t after short-term gain, when you have to live in the world you make, figuring out how to authentically minimize friction and celebrate positivity feels like a much better—and much more difficult—blueprint.

Thamela and Victoria defeat Tania and Izuzquiza (21-14, 21-18)

There are no easy paths in Ostrava. It’s all uphill. But if you’re a new team trying to find your footing, opening pool play with back-to-back matches against Brunner and Hüberli and Thamela and Victoria is like walking into the first day of a language course and starting with a translation of Joyce’s Ulysses. Good luck with that. And no refunds.

That was the challenge for Spain’s Tania Moreno and Sofia Izuzquiza, briefly teammates at TCU but playing together on the Pro Tour for just the second time after the Madrid Futures earlier this month. Tania and Dani were the epitome of chemistry en route to winning an NCAA title and reaching the Olympics. It doesn’t seem a stretch to suggest that what made them so difficult to beat is that you were, in effect, playing against one person, split into blocking and defending avatars. So, it has been fascinating this week to watch Tania try and build that anew with a self-evidently gifted 20-year-old prodigy of a blocker. It doesn’t look forced in the moment, but it would be fascinating to know how much each is learning about the other from point to point.

Given who the Spanish duo have faced after a dominant qualifying performance against Estonia, results belie the progress made. They’ve looked darn good for stretches.