The reigning champions of the Fort Lauderdale Major were eliminated in the qualifier

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Alvaro Filho faces the Czech block in the qualifier of the Fort Lauderdale Major

Alvaro Filho and Saymon Barbosa returned to Florida one year after their fairytale win in the 2017 Fort Lauderdale Major with the goal of repeating it. Their dreams didn’t last much, though, as the Brazilians were eliminated this Tuesday in the qualification tournament, the same stage where they started their victorious campaign last year.

The third-seeded team for the qualifier, Alvaro and Saymon pulled out with a comfortable two-set (21-9, 21-12) victory over China’s Yanwei Wang and Chaowei Zhou. In the second round, however, the defending champions were outplayed by 23-year-old Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, who won the match in straight sets (21-16, 21-12) and knocked them off the first Beach Major Series tournament of 2018.

“We’ve played them before, but they came up with a very good strategy this time,” Saymon said after the match. “Their coach certainly studied us well and their tactics were really effective. They also served well and our side out was not as good as usual. I feel we were well prepared, but perhaps we lacked our focus during the match.”

The unexpected early exit is a blow to the Brazilians plans as they relied on a good result to climb the world rankings. So now it’s time to digest the disappointment, make the necessary adjustments and keep moving forward as the season is just getting started.

“That’s how sports are, you win and you lose and the important is that you learn from both situations", Saymon added. "We’ll talk and get back to the team we used to be. We need to get stronger with these setbacks and will keep working hard to hopefully return to the podium in the next tournaments.”

Alvaro and Saymon encourage each other during the elimination match