It was almost guaranteed that the World Championships quarter-final matchup between USA’s Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb and Brazil’s André Loyola and George Wanderley would be decided in three sets.
The teams didn’t let the fans down and featured a thrilling three-set battle at the Rothenbaum Stadium and the Americans, who have now won three of the four matches in which they lost the first set in Hamburg, lived to their reputations to post a 16-21, 21-15, 17-15 come-from-behind victory and secure their places in the semi-finals.
“We most certainly don’t try it,” Crabb said, laughing. “We always want to win the first set because it helps us in dictating the match but in a three-set match whoever wins the second gets into that last one with a lot of confidence. We’re always ready for a third set when pressure is on. This is certainly our biggest win as a team, but we’re not done yet.”
The Americans not only came from behind, but they also had to deny the Brazilians three consecutive match points when the score had André and George leading 14-11. And they did it by combining Bourne’s net presence and Crabb’s backcourt skills to turn the set around and win It 17-15.
“We just trusted in our game,” Bourne added. “At times they were making runs and at times we were making runs, so we just tried to make one at that point and we did it. I was feeling good getting touches and getting into spots that made André uncomfortable and Trev was reading him pretty well any time he got past me. And we were really on and focused and that put some pressure on them.”
The Americans will now play the winners of Russia's Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Italy's Adrian Carambula/Enrico Rossi.
André and George’s elimination end Brazil’s participation at the World Championships. For the first-time ever, the South American powerhouse leaves the tournament empty-handed as no Brazilian team reached the semi-finals in either the men’s or women’s event.
“I can’t say I’m satisfied because we were just one point away from the semi-finals,” 2017 world champion André said. “But fifth overall was a good result for us, especially considering how much the points we earned here will help us on our main goal, which is qualifying to the Olympics.”
