Local beach volleyball stars Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser withdrew from the FIVB World Tour Beijing Grand Slam after Dalhausser suffered a sprained ankle during a quarterfinal match on Friday.
The injury jeopardizes the duo’s chances of playing at next weekend’s FIVB World Championships in Rome.
“Grade 2 sprained ankle is the diagnosis,” Rogers told Presidiosports.com in an email. “We are going to Rome and see if he can go on it. If not, we will go home.”
Dalhausser hurt his left ankle while diving for a ball during the second set against the Chinese team of Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin. He continued to play and the Americans won 21-13, 21-16. But the 6-9 Dalhausser was unable to go in the next match against Germany’s Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann.
“It’s definitely not 100 per cent, but the World Championships comes every two years. I have got to play, I mean we’ll see what happens,” Dalhausser told FIVB.org.
Rogers-Dalhausser were making their first trip to Beijing since winning the Olympic gold medal in 2008. They got off to a slow start in the tournament, going 1-2 in pool play, but stepped up their play in the knockout stage, eliminating Russia’s 15th seeds Yaroslav Koshkarev and Konstantin Semenov 21-16 and 21-19 and the Chinese team to make the top eight.
Go Todd and Phil! You will recover and be back on the sand in no time!