Press release

London, Great Britain, August 3, 2012 – Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo put a late-night lucky losers’ match behind them to return to the court less than 24 hours later and beat reigning Olympic champions Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser in the last 16 of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Italians had to play Canadians Martin Reader and Josh Binstock late on Thursday after they had finished third in their pool, but they won and served notice that they were finding their form at their debut Olympics and continued their upswing in form to finish with a 21-17, 21-19 victory at Horse Guard’s Parade.

“It is great, it’s fantastic, we’ve played the best team in the world and we won,” Nicolai said. “I think we played well throughout the match and had great intensity. For Italy it was already an historic Olympics as we are the first men’s team to come and now we have beaten the reigning Olympic champions.”

The pair were close to not making it to London, but squeezed through in the last qualifying tournament on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour in front of their home fans in Rome. It was Lupo, who hails from outside Rome, who won the match with a spike that Dalhausser was unable to defend.

“Our aim was to just qualify and in Rome we had difficulty getting here,” Lupo said. “Once we got here we knew we could play, though at the start we weren’t at our best physically, but now we are fully fit and focused.”

Second set comeback

For Rogers and Dalhausser it was a disappointing end to the defence of their Olympic gold medal. They threatened to come back in the second set, but the Italians had done enough to keep them at arm’s length.

“People say they are the new Phil and Todd and they out-Phil and Todded us tonight,” Rogers said. “They pushed us hard when there were crucial points. I’m bummed this is my last Olympics, I won’t be going on to Rio.”

Their fellow Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy did reach the quarter-finals when they beat Switzerland’s Nadine Zumkehr and Sabine Kuhn 21-15, 21-19.

The US pair played their final pool match yesterday, but managed to come out strongly at the start and quickly found their rhythm. In the second set though the Swiss fought hard to stay in contention and managed to save one match point before Ross won the match with a spike.

“I’m elated because it was a fast turn-around,” Ross said. “There was a lot of adrenalin going because we didn’t get time to train and we didn’t know how that would go so we came out and had a good warm up and it went well.”

Next up for Ross and Kessy is the winner of the match between Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes, and the Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova.

“We weren’t happy we had to play today, but we are now,” Ross added. “It gives us more chance to rest and watch them play.”