Jochem De Gruijter and Gijs Ronnes of the Netherlands pulled off a pair of upsets victories here Thursday during the opening rounds of the US$175,000 VIP Open as the Norwegian tandem of Kjell Goranson and Vegard Hoidalen took advantage of a "second chance" to remain in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour competition for another day.
After winning a pair of Qualification Tournament matches Wednesday over teams from Estonia and Brazil to advance to the Main Draw at the fourth annual VIP Open, De Gruijter and Gijs Ronnes scored two seed-breakthrough victories Thursday to become the third Beach Volleyball tandem from the Netherlands to remain unbeaten in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour competition.
By posting victories over 12th-seeded Clemens Doppler/Peter Gartmayer of Austria, and fifth-seeded Dmitri Barsouk/Igor Kolodinsky of Russia, the 21st-seeded De Gruijter and Gijs Ronnes joined the Dutch pairs of fourth-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil and eighth-seeded Emiel Boersma/Bram Ronnes in the upper-half of the VIP Open winner's bracket with top-seeded Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil.
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