Reigning world champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt started early and started with a bang much to the delight of the Copacabana Arena crowd on day one of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.
The Brazilian pair were second on court but they showed no lingering signs of needing a weekend lie-in as they despatched Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) after holding off a battling performance from the Canadian duo in the second set.
Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, Alison and Bruno’s predecessors as world champs, also started in the best way possible, with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) victory against Nikita Liamin and Dimitri Barsouk.
Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula took on Austria’s Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst in the opening match at Copacabana and turned in an impressive performance to defeat their European rivals.
Carambula’s famous skyball serve was a particular problem for the Austrians and in both sets he went on a run of winning five consecutive points from his high, hanging serve that set the Italians up for a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) win in front of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
USA’s Casey Patterson made his Olympic debut alongside Jacob Gibb, who is playing in his third Olympic Games.
They were quickly into their stride against Qatar’s Jefferson Pereira and Younousse Cherif, who were also making their Olympic debuts, and they finished with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) victory.
Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor may have won age-group FIVB World Championships at U19, U21 and U23 level, but their match against Germany’s Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen was their first in such an arena.
Nonetheless they shook off any nerves to defeat their fellow Olympic debutants 2-0 (21-11, 23-21).
Pablo Herrera returned for his fourth Olympic Games and the Athens 2004 silver medallist was involved in a fearsome struggle with Adrian Gavira against Robin Seidl and Alexander Huber.
The Austrians won the first set, but the Spanish duo fought back in the second and while they let slip one match point in the tie-break, Gavira’s powerful spike secured the result, 2-1 (14-21, 21-17, 15-13).
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