Brazilians look to reclaim podium spots in Gstaad

Photo Gallery>>(BEIJING, July 26) -- Eight men's teams, including three Brazilian duos, went undefeated in pool play of the 1 to 1 Energy Grand Slam in Gstaad, Switzerland, thus earning a bye in the first round of the elimination bracket. All three Brazilian pairs advanced without dropping a set in their pool play competition of this Grand Slam, part of the 2008 Swatch FIVB (Federation Internationale de Volleyball) World Tour.

Brazilians captured five of the six medals in Gstaad in 2005 and 2006, but got shut out in the 2007 World Championships at the Swiss Alps village. This year they look to reclaim the podium spots.

Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego, who are playing together in Gstaad for the first time ever as a team, began the day against Germans Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann, the top-seeded team in the tournament. Both teams entered the match undefeated.

Having qualified for his fourth Olympics with regular partner Ricardo Santos, Rego is playing with Cerutti while Santos recovers from an injury. Gstaad is the 10th FIVB event for Cerutti, who is slightly taller than Santos and 11 years younger.

Although new as a duo, the Brazilian pair beat their German opponents in two straight sets 21-17 and 21-16. They will take on 31st-seeded Philip Gabathuler and David Wenger of Switzerland on Saturday morning.

The other two Brazilian teams to earn a bye were sixth-seeded Pedro Salgado and Harley Marques, and eighth-seeded Franco Neto and Benjamin Insfran.

Russians Dmitri Barsouk and Igor Kolodinsky of Russia, who claimed silver at last year's Gstaad stop, also won the pool play.

Switzerland's Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider, seeded 10th in Gstaad, were scheduled to play seventh-seeded Australians Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack. But Slack's injury forced them to forfeit, which allowed the Swiss duo to advance without even playing on July 25. Having won their two previous matches, Laciga and Schnider advanced with a 3-0 match record.

Second-seeded Dutch pair Reinder Numerdor and Richard Schuil yielded no more than 16 points in any of their sets, and finished pool with the highest point ratio.

China's Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin also went through pool play without dropping a set. If they end up on top of the podium, Wu and Xu will be the first gold-winning pair from China on this Swatch FIVB World Tour.

Germany's Jonas Reckermann and Mischa Urbatzka, seeded fifth, joined all the other pool play winners in advancing to the next round of competition. The duo won silver in June at the FIVB ConocoPhillips Grand Slam in Stavanger, Norway.