Sleeping in their own beds is going feel better than ever for local pro beach volleyball stars Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser.
The No. 1-ranked team is headed home after spending the last three weeks of playing — and winning — tournaments in Europe and the East Coast of the U.S. Their latest conquest is the $600,000 Swatch-FIVB World Tour Grand Slam event in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Rogers-Dalhausser rolled through Germany’s David Klemperer and Eric Koreng, 21-18, 21-13, on a hot and humid Sunday to claim the championship in front of 5,000 fans in the Swiss Alps village. The winners share $43,500.
It is the second Grand Slam title this year for the local team (they took a second and a third in the other two majors) and the fifth international tournament championship out of eight events.
“I’m really happy about it,” Rogers said in an email interview with Presidiosports.com. “We struggled through on the first three days but today we played very well.”
Rogers-Dalhausser advanced to the title match by crushing Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel in the semifinals, 21-14 and 21-14.
Playing in the country of his birth, Dalhausser was at the top of his game on Sunday.
“I think Phil does get excited to play here,” said Rogers.
This was the second Gstaad title for Rogers-Dalhausser. They won the FIVB World Championship here in 2007.
Sunday’s title avenged a loss to the Germans in last week’s Grand Slam semifinal in Norway.
“We were fired up to play them and it showed in our play and emotions,” Rogers said.
“Our best match was the two today,” he added. “We didn’t play great versus Jake and Rosy (a three-game quarterfinal win on Saturday over Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal). We managed to get by them, really. They chucked two balls at the end of Game 3.”
The championship was the 13th for Rogers and Dalhausser in 33 FIVB starts together and it moved the Americans into a tie for fourth on the international gold medal list with Brazilians Roberto Lopes and Ricardo Santos.
After traveling to the Czech Republic, New Jersey, Norway and Switzerland for tournaments, Rogers and Dalhausser come home for a brief rest before returning to the domestic AVP Tour in Hermosa Beach on Friday.
Rogers can’t wait to get back and curl up in his own bed
“I haven’t slept at home since June 24th,” he said.
