Revenge was sweet for local pro beach volleyball stars Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser at the $190,000 Patria Direct Open in Prague, Czech Republic on Saturday.
Top-seeded Rogers-Dalhausser avenged an earlier defeat against American rivals Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb, beating the defending tournament champions, 21-14, 18-21, 15-8, en route to reaching their fifth gold medal match out of six events this season on the Swatch-FIVB World Tour.
Rogers-Dalhausser will play Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego in today’s final. It is the fourth-time this season they’ll face each other for a medal. The Americans have won two-gold medal matches over the Brazilians in Brazil and Italy and lost a three-set bronze-medal match in Shanghai, China.
Rogers-Dalhausser started the day with a tough three-set win over Spain’s Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera, 17-21, 23-21,-15-13. They then defeated Gibb-Rosenthal, whom they lost against in the second round on Friday. It was the local team’s 39th triumph over their fellow AVP stars.
In the semifinals, Rogers-Dalhauser upended Germany’s Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, 21-16, 21-14. They are now 6-1 against the defending world champions.
Third-seeded Alison and Emanuel defeated China’s Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu in the other semifinal Sturday, 22-20, 21-18. Wu-Xu beat Rogers-Dalhausser for the gold in Monday’s Russia Grand Slam event.
Sunday’s finale will be the 45th time that Brazil and the United States have competed for a Swatch-FIVB World Tour gold medal with the South Americans holding a 24-20 edge in the title series. Dalhausser and Rogers have won their last four gold medal matches against Brazilians, starting with a three-set win in the finals of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games over Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes.
