It was a "tough" day for the top-seeded teams in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Men's Qualification Tournament here Wednesday afternoon on Glenelg Beach as only three of the top-ranked tandems advanced to the opening Main Draw rounds with preliminary Beach Volleyball wins.
Only second-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Martins Plavins of Latvia, fifth-seeded Kirk Pitman/Jason Lochhead of New Zealand and seventh-seeded Bjorn Berg/Hannes Brinkborg of Sweden protected their seeds in the men's qualifier at the US$350,000 Adelaide Australia Open at the Moseley Square courts.
Pitman and Lochhead survived an upset bid by 21st-seeded Farid Mussa and Jesus Villafaņe of Venezuela as the Kiwi's posted a come-from-behind 19-21, 21-19 and 16-14 win in 60 minutes over the South Americans, who were competing in their first-ever SWATCH FIVB World Tour event together. Pitman and Lochhead are competing in their 55th international event since forming their partnership in 2004.
Berg and Brinkborg, who formed their partnership last season, were also extended to three sets before posting a 21-14, 18-21 and 15-13 over Bo Soderberg and Anders Lund Hoyer. The 10th-seeded Danes had won three stops on the 2008 Australian domestic tour.
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