USA tandem falls in final FIVB beach volleyball qualifying match

For Eric Fonoimoana and Kevin Wong of the Untied States, the beach volleyball Qualification Tournament for the Brazilian Open lasted one day too long.

After winning a pair of matches Tuesday, the top-seeded Fonoimoana and Wong were eliminated from main draw consideration after being upset by 16th-seeded Pedro Cunha and Pará Ferreira 21-16 and 21-16 on Wednesday in the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour season opener for men in Salvador, Brazil.

"Obviously, we did not play well enough to win," said Wong. "The chemistry between the two Brazilians was very good. The younger (Cunha) played well for his age and handle the pressure of the match and made several big defensive plays." Fonoimoana, the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallists with Dain Blanton," cited his team's "lack of making any plays defensively. We also had to serve better."

The two-day Qualification Tournament placed the final eight teams in the Main Draw. United States tandems competing in the 32-team main draw include Blanton/Jeff Nygaard, Dax Holdren/Stein Metzger and Todd Rogers/Sean Scott.

Blanton and Nygaard, who won the 2003 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour season opener in Greece last June, finished the season as the 11th-ranked team internationally with three "final four" finishes. The pair will be competing in their ninth FIVB tournament after posing a 24-14 match mark last season.

Blanton and Nygaard were fifth in the 2003 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro last October. The Americans returned to Ipanema Beach in Rio last month for an exhibition with Brazil's Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos where they defeated the world's top-ranked team and 2003 World Champions 22-20, 20-22 and 15-13.

Holdren and Metzger formed their partnership near the end of the 2003 season and posted a fifth and second in two international starts at Los Angeles and Rio, respectively, with a 10-3 match mark.

Holdren and Metzger won the Silver Medal at the 2003 World Championships after splitting their final two matches with the top two ranked teams in the world. After defeating Marcio Araujo and Benjamin Insfran in the semi-finals (21-19 and 21-14), Holdren and Metzger were defeated 21-19 and 21-14 in the Gold Medal match by Emanuel and Ricardo.

Rogers and Scott, who teamed to win 14 of 31 matches last season on the FIVB circuit with a season best finish of fifth in Portugal, are competing in their 17th SWATCH-FIVB World Tour event together.

For more information on FIVB beach volleyball, go to the FIVB web site.