MANILA, Philippines — Ran Abdilla and James Buytrago came up with a scintillating performance to beat Japan’s Yoshi Hasegawa and Dylan Kurokawa, 22-24, 24-22, 15-9, Thursday in the Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championship at the Nuvali Sand Courts in the City of Santa Rosa.
Shaking off a frustrating start, Abdilla and Buytrago made a strong push to force a decider, which they fully controlled.
“We will not simply break down and give up,” Buytrago said. “It was a very difficult and frustrating first set, but we just had to continue fighting. We needed this win badly.”
The Alas Pilipinas top men’s pair bounced back from a straight sets loss to Alani Nicklin and Thomas Hartles of New Zealand for a 1-1 record ahead of a crucial match in pool play against Thailand’s Netitorn Muneekul and Wachirawit Muadpha in the tournament backed by Nuvali, Ayala Land, Rebisco, Smart, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, City of Santa Rosa, Mikasa, Senoh, Asics, Akari, Sip, Cignal, One Sports, One Sports Plus, Pilipinas Live, Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF).
“We were really tired, but the mindset is to win,” Abadilla said. “There is nothing better than the feeling of winning, but we’re not done here yet, lots of volleyball left to play.”
Alas Pilipinas, however, took a huge hit as Rancel Varga and Lerry Franciso bowed to Dunwinit Kaewsai and Banlue Nakprakong, 14-21, 19-21.
The new partners looked on the way to a decider when they took a five-point lead in the second set, 15-10, but collapsed and suffered another straight-sets loss.
The top-rated pair of Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher from Australia had a tough win against Japan’s Nassim Malki and Kosuke Fukushima, 21-16, 16-21, 15-6, for their second straight win in the tournament held under the auspices of the PNVF and the AVC, both headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher next takes on AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open champion Abbas Pourasgari and Alireza Aghajanighasab of Iran, who defeated China’s Song Jinyang and Zhang Tai, 17-21, 21-15, 15-8.
Australia’s Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert downed Thailand’s Surin Jongklang and Kittituch Khomkham, 21-17, 21-19, while Japan’s Takumi Takahashi and Jumpei Ikeda defeated Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakolev and Sergey Bogatu, 25-23, 16-21, 16-14.