Dutch Nummerdor & Schuil Net Sanya Open Gold Medal

AVC

2009-10-31 22:33:00 From：AVC

Sanya, China, October 31, 2009 -- Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of The Netherlands rebounded from a second-round defeat to win their next seven matches to capture the gold medal here Saturday by defeating Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China in the men's final of the US$380,000 Sanya Open presented by Olympic Bay.

It was Nummerdor and Schuil's third-straight SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal as the Dutchman had won their last two international "open" events by capturing finales in Finland and The Netherlands over teams from Germany and Spain, respectively. Five weeks before this week's event, Nummerdor and Schuil also won the European continental championships in Sochi, Russia.

With their 21-13 and 21-14 win in 35 minutes over the ninth-seeded Wu and Xu, the top-seeded Nummerdor and Schuil shared the $30,000 first-place prize. Wu and Xu, who were competing in their sixth SWATCH FIVB World Tour, split $21,000 for second-place in their first international event together since their ninth-place finish at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Sunday's meeting was the 10th-time the two teams have met on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour with the Wu and Xu still holding a 6-4 edge in the confrontations. The two teams played each other in an international finale in Croatia in 2008 with Nummerdor and Schuil winning 17-21, 21-17 and 15-11 in Zagreb.

With the Sanya Open being the 14th and final men's event on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, Nummerdor and Schuil reached Saturday's final with a 21-16 and 21-18 semi-final win in 38 minutes Friday afternoon over second-seeded Adrian Gavira Collado and Pablo Herrera of Spain.

Wu and Xu gained a spot in the Sanya Open finale with a 21-12 and 21-19 win in 38 minutes over 16th-seeded Yury Bogatov and Serguei Prokopiev of Russia. The Chinese team split after the Beijing Summer Games to prepare for their country's National Games.

In the bronze medal match, Herrera and Gavira captured their fifth SWATCH FIVB World Tour podium placement in 11 events together in 2009 by scoring 17-21, 21-12 and 15-10 in 55.