PH's Abdilla, Buytrago triumph over Japanese rivals

MANILA – Filipino pair Ran Abdilla and James Buytrago recovered from a first-set loss to conquer Japan's Yoshi Hasegawa and Dylan Kurokawa, 22-24, 24-22, 15-9, in the Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championship at the Nuvali Sand Courts in Santa Rosa City, Laguna on Thursday.

After taking the second set, the Filipinos tried to sustain their momentum to claim the match.

"We will not simply break down and give up. It was a very difficult and frustrating first set, but we just had to continue fighting. We needed this win badly," commented Buytrago.

The Filipinos have secured their first win after bowing to New Zealand's Alani Nicklin and Thomas Hartles. Their next match will be against Thailand's Netitorn Muneekul and Wachirawit Muadpha.

"We were really tired but the mindset is to win. There is nothing better than the feeling of winning, but we're not done here yet, lots of volleyball left to play," Abdilla said.

The other Alas Pilipinas pair of Rancel Varga and Lerry Francisco failed to overcome Thailand's Dunwinit Kaewsai and Banlue Nakprakong, 14-21, 19-21.

Teaming up for the first time, Varga and Francisco took a 15-10 lead in the second set but collapsed.

Meanwhile, Australians Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher, the tournament top seeds, survived Japanese rivals Nassim Malki and Kosuke Fukushima, 21-16, 16-21, 15-6, to secure their second straight win in the tournament held under the auspices of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) and the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC), both headed by Ramon "Tats" Suzara.

Nicolaidis and Carracher will next face AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open champions Abbas Pourasgari and Alireza Aghajanighasab of Iran, who prevailed over Chinese pair Song Jinyang and Zhang Tai, 17-21, 21-15, 15-8.

In other matches, Australia's Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert outplayed Thailand's Surin Jongklang and Kittituch Khomkham, 21-17, 21-19, while Japan's Takumi Takahashi and Jumpei Ikeda rallied past Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Yakolev and Sergey Bogatu, 25-23, 16-21, 16-14. (PNA)