Top seeds Nummerdor/Varenhorst forced to retire from Fuzhou Open due to injury

Top seeds Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst from the Netherlands were forced to retire from the Fuzhou Open after Nummerdor sustained an injury during their second round match on Friday.

It was a busy day for the men as the single elimination tournament played three rounds deciding the semifinal positions for Saturday. Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen, Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen from the Netherlands, Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson from France and American Todd Rogers/Stafford Slick all made it through to the final day of the men's competition in Fuzhou.

Both Bockermann/Fluggen and Sebastian Fuchs/Thomas Kaczmarek from Germany topped their respective pool before each team eased to the quarter-finals with two set wins in just over half an hour in the third round. The quarter-final that ensued between the two teams was the tightest of the day and a fight to the end.

Bockermann/Fluggen asserted themselves early in the match snatching the first few points, but it soon became clear that the rest of the match would not be as smooth. The two powerful teams played with an understandably similar style and attempts to try and outwit the other seemed impossible.

Fuchs/Kaczmarek came into their own and a Bockermann serve long at set point then made life difficult as the seesaw battle continued to 24-22 in Bockermann/Fluggen's favor.

The match continued well for Bockermann/Fluggen until Fuchs/Kaczmarek were suddenly just one point behind before managing to turn the set at the critical point to take the second.

The final set witnessed the same tussle for each and every point with some spectacular rallies, but the well earned semi-final position finally went to Bockermann/Fluggen 2-1 (24-22, 23-25, 15-8).

"We're feeling awesome it was a big fight, our first tournament together and it was such a big thing to play a really good game against another German team and win," said Bockermann.

"We've known them for several years, it's always difficult to play against when you know them so good because everyone knows what will happen, but we found a good way."

Nummerdor/Varenhorst were forced to retire after Nummerdor sustained an injury during their second round match against Rogers/Slick. Dutch head coach Gijs Ronnes said Nummerdor was fit entering the tournament and remains optimistic.

"It's an Achilles, calf problem. We don't want to take any risks. We don't know how long it will take to recover. We will go back to Holland tomorrow and find out how serious it is. It's very disappointing, of course. First tournament, we want to do well," said Ronnes.

The semi-finals between Bockermann/Fluggen and Krou/Rowlandson followed by Brouwer/Meeuwsen and Rogers/Slick will be decided on Saturday.

In 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 men's medal matches will be held on Saturday and the women's medal matches will be held on Sunday. Endi