A week after they had won the Rio Open, the back-to-back World Tour title holders from Latvia Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins added another trophy to their showcase.
Far more suitable for a beach volleyball tournament rather than a Winter Olympic Games (2014), the Russian city of Sochi, located on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, welcomed the World Tour for the first time. Never before had the premier international circuit arrived to the Black Sea. Following the success of Russian stops, the Sochi Open was the second event in Russia in 2015, with the capital city of Moscow having organized a Grand Slam in May.
Samoilovs-Smedins missed parts of the season so far due to Janis Smedins’ knee surgery, which also significantly hampered their title defence, and are now out there looking for both Tour ranking and Olympic points. The Latvians won their second pair of gold medals this year, one more than what they achieved in 2014, and will have to complete a small world journey across three continents to accomplish their mission – the Opens in Rio, Sochi, and Xiamen are scheduled in a span of four weeks.
The Latvians enjoyed a perfect record (7 wins out of 7 games) at the Russian Open. In the final they faced a tough opposition by the Americans Lucena-Dalhausser but closed the match in their favour (24-22, 21-19). Samoilovs-Smedins relied on their versatility to leave the court with a victory and showed once more why they are among the most easily adaptable teams on the Tour. To gain advantage over Phil Dalhausser’s insane blocking, Aleksandrs Samoilovs often spiked the second ball. This made life much harder for the US twosome as Dalhausser not only had to take care of two possible attackers but also had to move more quickly at the net, resulting, of course, in a less efficient blocking. Also, this tactic required a confident receiver, such as Janis Smedins, and a partner who feels no pressure spiking, blocking, setting, or defending. This overall convertibility by the Latvians has paid off on many occasions and was the main reason why Samoilovs-Smedins appeared on the highest podium step for a second week in a row now.
“Sasha (Aleks Samoilovs) did all the work”, Smedins said. “I just put the ball up in the air and he did all the scoring.” Samoilovs added: “Dalhausser served very strong, Janis did a great job putting the ball up so I could finish.”
The newly formed American pair finished with another set of silver after they had lost the final against Alison-Bruno at the Long Beach Grand Slam in their first tournament together since the renewal of their partnership. It was followed by a quarterfinal (5th place) at the Olsztyn Grand Slam, so we can say Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser are doing it right en route to qualifying for Rio 2016. They will also participate in as many events as possible, so I would not rule out the opportunity for a revenge against the Latvians as they might meet quite soon.
“That’s why we play all these Opens”, the 2008 Olympic champion Dalhausser commented. “At every tournament we need a good finish, but rumour has it that there is going to be seven to ten tournaments before June. Hopefully that is the case and we can play all of them.”
The audience in Sochi was unlucky to find out there was not going to be a Russian team on the podium. The top-seeded Semenov-Krasilnikov lost the battle for the bronze (18-21, 21-15, 13-15) against the Italians Nicolai-Lupo who only made it to the medals for the first time in 2015. The Russians, as a matter of fact, were also chasing their first podium finish as they now repeated the 4th place they had achieved at the Yokohama Grand Slam. A back injury at the end of the second set might have disturbed the defender Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and thus prevented the Russians from completing a more successful home event. Meanwhile, Nicolai-Lupo were happy with the bronze medals in what seems to be their last appearance on the Tour in 2015.
Teams will now arrange their schedules and travel plans for a week as next week the Xiamen Open, the second Chinese Open of the campaign, will shift our attention back to Asia.
