Todd Rogers and his rookie partner Ryan Doherty failed to qualify for the main draw at the FIVB World Tour Shanghai Grand Slam pro beach volleyball tournament in China on Tuesday.
In a two-round qualification tournament, Rogers-Doherty won their first match against Roman Sutter-Andreas Sutter from Switzerland (21-18, 21-12) and then lost to Germany’s Markus Bockermann-Mischa Urbatska (21-15, 21-13) and were eliminated.
Eight teams advanced out of the qualifier to form a 32-team main draw, which begins pool play on Wednesday.
The American teams in the main draw are Phil Dalhausser-Sean Rosenthal (the No. 2 seeds), Nick Lucena-Brad Keenan (14) and Jake Gibb-Casey Patterson (9).
Rogers had won the last two Shanghai Opens with Phil Dalhausser.
Rogers-Doherty finished 17th in their FIVB debut last weekend at the Fuzhou Open in China.
