Big Upsets Abound at World Championships

It was a shocking day on the men’s side as Cherif & Ahmed and Samuele Cottafava & Paolo Nicolai were eliminated and Brazil still has four men’s team alive. Sarah and Melissa are still fighting to defend their crown and there were some epic three setters with huge come from behind victories across the 16 matches. If you missed any of the action, you’ve come to the right place to catch up.

Il silenzio cala sul Foro Italico

In the seedings, Adrian Carambula & Enrico Rossi were the top ranked team, but it was Samuele Cottafava & Paolo Nicolai that had caught all of the attention with their dominance so far in Rome. Daniele Lupo & Alex Ranghieri were thriving in the Foro Italico as well, but that all came to a crashing end tonight in one session that left the Italian fans silenced and Brazil and the Netherlands moving on.

Carambula and Rossi’s shock exit happened yesterday at the hands of the Chilean Grimalt cousins, but the nature of Cottafava and Paolo’s demise was truly breath taking. I haven’t seen many more dominant first sets than the one they put together against Brazil’s Renato Lima and Vitor Felipe only to lose in three sets.

Nicolai completely dominats set 1

Nicolai was on fire as they stormed out to 10-3 lead through a series of blocks, aces and pressure that forced Brazil into errors. After Brazil steadied for a while, Nicolai established his dominance again late in the set and a huge 21-11 score. Even his setting skills were on display as his back setting and even a jump back set gave Samuelle tons of open swings.

Brazil’s resilience shocks the crowd

But as we all know, the second set starts with a 0-0 score no matter how lopsided the first set end. And the young Renato showed amazing maturity to shake off a horrible opener in the pressure packed moment with all the fans against him. He and Vitor stayed toe to toe and lead 11-10 going into the technical timeout. Renato came up with a huge block on Nicolai to steal the advantage late and then Cottafava seemed to wilt in the pressure missing an attack to give Brazil the win.

Unbelievably the match was going to a third set. Italy gained an early advantage, but Vitor Felipe’s dig and transition kill silenced the crowd at 7-7. Renato blocked Cottafava for lead at 8-7 at the side switch and then the thrilling back and forth really got started….