Disentis, Switzerland, March 11, 2017. On Saturday, the Swiss teams completely destroyed all faith in the seeding system in men’s play at the 2017 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour stop in Disentis. With all visiting duos seeded higher than all host country pairs, based on entry points, the teams from Switzerland pleased the cheering spectators on centre court by emerging victorious in 100% of the games in all three rounds of the winners’ bracket.
Two Swiss teams already qualified for Sunday’s semi-finals. Two more are still in contention, to be challenged by Polish pairs in the last leg of the losers’ bracket, scheduled for Sunday morning.
The first major upset in the tournament came in the second round when ninth-seeded Andreas Catschegn/Timon Hallauer surprised the competition pre-favourites Michal Matyja/Maciej Klimas from Poland by beating them in the tie-breaker set - 2-1 (11-9, 6-11, 11-6). Before that, in the opening match of the tournament, the Swiss team had claimed a 2-0 (11-6, 11-3) victory over compatriots Samuel Bühler/Andreas Bühlmann. In the all-Swiss third round, Catschegn/Hallauer managed a speedy 2-0 (11-1, 11-5) shutout of fifth-seeded Philipp Rageth/Denis Mösle to find themselves in the semis.
“It is a great feeling! We did not have any expectations, we tried to play and we managed to win against really good teams, so we are really happy,” said Timon Hallauer. “It’s wonderful! We have the mountains, we have the snow, and we have the sun... What more do we need? I don’t miss the beach at the moment.”
The road of sixth-seeded Raphael Zurgilgen/Thomas Helbling to the final four was somewhat similar. They defeated compatriots Silvan Lang/David Hollenstein in straight sets, then emerged victorious with a 2-1 (9-11, 11-6, 11-8) win from a tiebreak clash with a Polish duo – third-seeded Piotr Groszek/Tomasz Cwiertnia. In their last step towards the semi-finals, Zurgilgen/Helbling managed a tough 2-0 (13-11, 11-9) win against seventh-seeded Marco Back/Christian Busin.
“Maybe our Swiss players are more used to the high altitude. It is great that local teams play an important role at this tournament. They are not just background; they are playing at the level of the top international teams,” commented Rudolf Buechi, General Manager of the ski-resort of Disentis, pleased with the outcome of the event, not only competition-wise. “It is great that so many people, not knowing Snow Volleyball, joined the event – passers-by who walked in and are having a lot of fun. The feedback from the Kids Day yesterday was excellent too. For the local children it was something new. They enjoyed playing together with the professional athletes yesterday and they are talking about it with their friends today.”
The first of the two men’s semi-finals on Sunday will start at noon on centre court. Before that, two more semi-finalists will emerge from the losers’ bracket, with the last leg starting at 10:30 local time and featuring two Switzerland-against-Poland battles - Back/Busin vs. Matyja/Klimas and Rageth/Mösle vs. Groszek/Cwiertnia.
For further information on the European Tour, click here or visit SnowVolleyball.com.