Shanghai, China, May 8, 2010 - Duo’s from Brazil picked up  the gold and bronze medals while Germany claimed the silver medal Saturday, concluding the men’s competition at the $US380,000 Shanghai Open presented by City Beach. The Chinese port city is hosting the international Beach Volleyball community this week in the Jinshan District for the seventh-straight year.

In the gold medal finale, fifth-seeded Pedro Salgado and Harley Marques of Brazil defeated Germany’s fourth-seeded Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann in three sets, 21-15, 13-21 and 17-15 in 62 minutes. With the victory Harley captured his fourth straight Shanghai Open gold medal and his third with Salgado. Harley won last year here with Alison Cerutti, who partners Emanuel Rego this season. Salgado and Harley now have a perfect 10-0 career record in FIVB gold medal matches.

With only one weeks practice ahead of the event – as they played with different partners last year and at the season-opener two weeks ago – Salgado and Harley have now helped Brazil extend its lead in gold medal matches to 17-7 again teams from Germany.

Despite their two-set loss to Brink and Reckermann in the third round, Salgado and Harley turned things around from the start of the gold medal match. In the first set, Salgado and Harley jumped to early leads of 3-1 and 8-3 before the Germans closed it to 10-8 and then again to 16-14 after the Brazilians had taken a 15-8 lead. With two aces and two strategically placed shots by Harley, sending the Brazilians to a 20-14 lead, they ended the set on following a Harley kill off of Reckermann’s block attempt for the 21-15 final score. Harley had three aces in the first set.

In the second set Brink and Reckerman rallied back and broke open a close game. After it tying at 8-8, the Germans reeled off six straight points and held onto the lead until taking the set 21-13. In a back and forth third set, the Brazilians finally prevailed even though both teams built up leads of two points. The Germans tied the score at 11-11 after a Harley kill into the net. In the final stretch of points, the score was tied five times until the Brazilians scored two final points on a Harley ace down to the left corner and Salgado’s block of a Brink attack to put the match to bed.

“I knew we would get our game back quickly, even though we didn’t play together last year, but this quick was even more than we anticipated,” commented Harley at the post-match press conference. “We knew we had to make some big plays to beat the Germans and in the end we came up with just enough to grab the gold medal. It is remarkable to win here in Shanghai four straight years, it’s almost like it has become a new home for me in this part of the world.  It was actually good for us to come back through the contender’s bracket because it gave us more matches and more competition to help us concentrate and focus like I know we can. I knew I had to come up with something so I went for the ace and got it and Pedro ended it all with a great block.”

Salgado and Harley went 7-1 in Shanghai while Brink and Reckermann, the reigning FIVB World Champions, ended with a 5-2 record in the tournament. In addition to their gold medals, the Brazilians will split the winner’s $30,000 purse while the Germans will share a $21,000 purse in addition to their silver medals.

In the bronze medal match prior to the championship finale on the Jinshan City Beach center court, Brazil’s third-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego defeated USA’s top seeded Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser in three sets, 21-16, 12-21 and 15-13 in a 50-minute medal match.  It was a rematch of the gold medal match two weeks ago in Brazil which was won by the Americans in two sets. While the first two sets weren’t close, the deciding third was tied four times with the final one at 10-10 as Rogers and Dalhausser jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Brazilians rallied with Alison blocks and Emanuel cross-court kills to defeat the Americans.

For winning the bronze medal, Alison and Emanuel, who had a 4-2 record in the tournament, will split the $15,000 third-place purse while Dalhausser and Rogers, who also had a 4-2 record in the tournament, earned a split of $11,200 for their fourth place placement.

In the semifinal matches earlier on Saturday, Salgado and Harley defeated Rogers and Dalhausser, 21-18 and 21-13 in 40 minutes and Brink and Reckermann defeated Alison and Emanuel in three sets, 21-14, 18-21 and 16-14 in 60 minutes. Salgado and Harley moved edged to a 3-2 record between the two sides in FIVB series history while it was the first meeting between the Brazilian combination of Alison and Emanuel against Brink and Reckermann. Rogers and Dalhausser, the 2008 Olympic gold medal winners had won the gold medal in their last three appearances on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, including the season-opener two weeks ago in Brazil.

The Shanghai Open was the second of 12 double-gender events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar. This year’s tournament featured an event record of 70 men’s teams and an event record-tying 61 women’s teams competing in Shanghai.

After the Shanghai Open, the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar continues with a double gender event in Rome (May 17-23) for the season’s first Grand Slam event.  Seoul (women) and Myslowice (men) host single-gender events May 25-30.  After a week break, Moscow hosts the second grand slam event on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

You can find this article on FIVB.org