Latvia's Plavins/Egleskalns enter beach volleyball Fuzhou Open main draw

Martins Plavins/Hermans Egleskalns from Latvia defeated top seeded qualifiers Tuesday for a spot in the 2015 FIVB beach volleyball Fuzhou Open.

Plavins, the 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist, began 2015 with brand new partner Hermans Egleskalns playing in his first ever senior level FIVB tournament.

The Latvians beat Spain's Francisco Tomas/Cesar Menendez Ortego in the first round of qualification 2-0 (21-15, 21-18), before meeting top seeded qualifiers Canada's Sam Pedlow/Grant O'Gorman.

The first set saw the introduction of Egleskalns left arm, a powerful addition to the Latvian team, but otherwise there was no clear difference between the two teams. Pedlow/O'Gorman closed out the first 22-20.

Canada produced some industrious play in the second, while Latvia remained incredibly calm throughout. With Egleskalns'left arm playing its part, Plavins/Egleskalns pulled back to take the second set 21-15.

Big hits with a number of errors from both teams racked up the points in the third set and it was an Egleskalns serve followed by a long rally brought to a close by Plavins down the line to end the match 2-1 (20-22, 21-15, 15-13).

"The match was really hard, they played really good. I'm a little surprised that we played so good and that's why we won," said Plavins.

"I felt more free than the first match and I'm happy that we can stay and play more. To get that experience is really important for me," said Egleskalns.

Plavins has been playing on the world scene for over ten years, but is ready to learn from his new partner and excited about their new team.

"It's great, I like that my new partner is a real professional that works not only on the court but outside the court to prevent injuries, to work on technique and it makes me also work harder every day so I hope that I will improve thanks to him," said Plavins.

Also on Tuesday, Mats Kovatsch/Jonas Kissling from Switzerland defeated Neilton Moises Santos Merces/Iaroslav Rudykh from Azerbaijan in the first round of qualification 2-0 (21-14, 21-16). The Swiss pair then met Bahman Salemiinjehboroun/Rahman Raoufi from Iran in the second round in a challenging face-up. A Kovatsch block ended the first set 21-16, but the second set would not run as smoothly with a relentless performance from B. Salemi/R.Raoufi.

Strong blocking by B. Salemi along with accurate Iranian serving, the Swiss pair was placed on their back foot and as the pressure began to show on both sides with a number of unforced errors the score lay at 21-21. A long rally and spirited Iranian play ended the second set (24-26).

The third set saw intelligent play from both sides, but it was Kovatsch/Kissling who regained their form at 10-10 closing the match 2-1 (21-16, 24-26, 15-11) and earning a spot in the main draw.

"I think it was a great match for the public, but we didn't play our best volleyball. We had never seen the team before, it was a new team so it's always difficult to find the solutions against them. I think they played pretty good, but in the end we luckily won," said Kovatsch.

"We feel pretty good, it's always if you travel so long to China, spend a lot of money and then if we have to go home after two games, it's not really cool, so we have a big relief now," said Kissling.

Kovatsch/Kissling are in Fuzhou for a second time and have high hopes for the tournament.

"We will try to get better than last year and last year we made fifth place so our goal is to go to the semis," said Kovatsch.

"Last year was our first tournament as a new team together and that was best result we ever had on the world tour, so we really like it here. We're comfortable with the Chinese people, we really like it, they're always smiling and cheering so it's really nice to play here," said Kissling.

China's Gao Peng/Li Yang pulled off two upset wins, over Solovejs Aleksandrs/Sorokins Ruslans of Latvia and Chevallier Sebastian/Krattiger Marco of Switzerland respectively, in the qualification to make the main draw.

For its third consecutive year, the Fuzhou Open is the first double-gender event of the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar with a prize purse of 150,000 U.S. dollars.

The gold medal teams in each gender at the FIVB Fuzhou Open will each split 11,000 dollars, the silver 8,000 dollars, the bronze 6,000 dollars and fourth place 4,500 dollars. The men's medal matches will be held on Saturday and the women's medal matches will be held on Sunday. Endi