Dalhausser and Rosenthal Win Gold at Fuzhou Open

By Alex Baker

The AVP’s Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal took the gold medal at the Fuzhou Open in China on Saturday. The US duo were playing in their first tournament together and clinched the gold by beating out Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo, 21-18, 24-22.
Dalhausser and Rosenthal had booked their passage into the gold medal match earlier in the day by narrowly edging Brazilians Ricardo Alex

Costa Santos and Alvara Morals Filho, 19-21, 26-24, 20-18.

“We found the match against the Brazilians very tough,” said Dalhausser afterwards, speaking to fivb.org. “The new lefty, the young guy sided out time after time even after taking a ball into his face, but we were lucky enough to just pull it off.”

The gold medal win is Fuzhou confirms what many have already suspected; that Dalhausser and Rosenthal will be the team to beat on the men’s beach volleyball circuit this year and perhaps for the foreseeable future.
Despite only having been training together since January, both Dalhausser and Rosenthal have already enjoyed long and successful careers on the sand. Dalhausser and his former partner Todd Rogers were among the most formidable men’s duos to ever compete in the sport and won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Rosenthal is also a beach veteran and with his former partner, Jacob Gibb, has won several medals on the World Tour and Open circuit.

“I’m finding the new partnership pretty good,” said Dalhausser. “We’re one for one so I can’t complain and I don’t think Sean’s complaining either.”

While the silver medal went to the Italians Nicolai and Lupo, the bronze was captured by the Austrian team of Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl. Despite having to settle for third place, Huber and Seidl also enjoyed a breakout performance in Fuzhou, beating the AVP’s Todd Rogers and Ryan Doherty, as well as also besting Jacob Gibb and partner Casey Patterson.

On the women’s side, the gold medal went to the Chinese duo of Chen Xue and Zhang Xi who beat out Spain’s Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo McMillan.
Germans Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler beat the Dutch duo of Sophie van Gestel and Madelein Meppelink to win the bronze.