30.08.07
AUSTRIANS SEEKING STRONG 2007 SWATCH-FIVB WORLD TOUR FINISH
St. Petersburg , Russia , August 30, 2007 - At this time last year, Austrian Clemens Doppler was laying in a hospital bed following his second knee operation in a 25-month period and tracking the “live” scoring on the international Beach Volleyball tours.
St. Petersburg , Russia , August 30, 2007 - At this time last year, Austrian Clemens Doppler was laying in a hospital bed following his second knee operation in a 25-month period and tracking the “live” scoring on the international Beach Volleyball tours.
Here Thursday in the US$400,000 St. Petersburg Open, Doppler and his partner Peter Gartmayer posted a pair of SWATCH-FIVB World Tour wins over teams Denmark and Russia at the Peter-And-Paul Fortress on the Neva River to advance to the third-round of the winner’s with seven other unbeaten teams.
After eight ninth-place finishes in their first 12 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour starts this season, the Austrians have posted their best two placements the past two weekends and need at least one win Friday to maintain their goal of finishing the 2007 season as one of the top 10 teams on the international circuit.
Doppler and Gartmayer’s string of late season success started two weeks ago on a Finnish island where the Austrians missed qualifying for their first SWATCH “final four” together where they dropped their final two matches to teams from Brazil and Germany that eventually played for Aland gold medal.
Last week at the European finals in Valencia, Spain, Doppler and Gartmayer rebounded from a setback to Estonia’s Kristjan Kais and Rivo Vesik to win their next five matches to capture the 2007 continental championships by defeating Dutchmen Reindeer Nummerdor and Richard Schuil in the finals.
During the European victory streak, Doppler and Gartmayer avenged their setback to the Estonians in the semi-finals after ousting teams from Belgium, Georgia and Russia to reach the “final four” bracket. The Russian win was over training mates Dmitri Barsouk and Igor Kolodinsky, who are the third-ranked team on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour.
“It has been a good run,” said the 26-year old Doppler, who initially hurt his left knee in July 2004 prior to the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. “Just think, I was in a hospital bed last year at this time tracking the Beach Volleyball scores and wondering if I could comeback against from a second operation on my left knee.”
Doppler, who sat out the Athens Olympics after qualifying with Nikolas Berger, saw his 2006 season end last August in Austria at the Klagenfurt SWATCH grand slam stop when his left knee buckled during a serve in a match he was leading with Gartmayer against Argentina’s Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde.
“It was not the best of times for me last August,” said Doppler, who is nearing the end of his 10th season of international Beach Volleyball competition. “Obviously, it was an awesome feeling last week with Peter in Valencia following a good effort the week before in Finland. We are good friends, so our success the past two weeks together has been something special.”
Doppler and Gartmayer will be seeking to extend their string of success this week starting with a Friday match against reigning Olympic champions Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil and next week in their final event of the SWATCH season in Poland. The Austrian have not played Emanuel and Ricardo in 13 months after dropping a pair of matches to the Brazilians in Croatia and Canada last season.
“I think our training sessions with the Russians have really helped us,” said the 29-year old Gartmayer, who competed in the Athens 2004 Olympics with Robert Nowotny. “We have the same coach (Marco Solustri), so we are getting a lot of valuable practice time against each other. The last three weeks have been great for us, but tomorrow brings a big challenge against the top-ranked team in the world.”
Barsouk and Kolodinsky, who also dropped a SWATCH match to Doppler and Gartmayer earlier this season in Paris, also finished Thursday’s play with a 2-0 record to advance to a Friday match against Pedro Cunha and Franco Neto of Brazil with the winner play either Yannick Salvetti/Guilherm Deulofeu of France or Marcio Araujo/Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil for a spot in Saturday’s semi-finals. The Emanuel/Ricardo versus
Doppler/Gartmayer winner will be challenged by either Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado of Brazil or Baracetti/Conde for a second “final four” spot.
Sixteen other teams remain in the men’s St. Petersburg Open with one defeat each in the double-elimination competition. SWATCH play concludes Saturday with the women’s medal matches and the men’s podium-placing contest Sunday. The gold medal teams in each gender will share the $32,000 first-place prizes.
