Alison and Bruno get their second #FTLMajor win over Dutch Brouwer and Meeuwsen

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Bruno Schmidt and Alison prevailed over the Dutch in one of the side court in Fort Lauderdale

The last edition of the Fort Lauderdale Major was not good for Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt. After finishing fifth in 2017, the Olympic champions returned to Florida willing to write a different story and they seem to be in the right path after getting a pair of wins to lead Pool F and book their places in the Round of 16.

This Thursday, the Brazilian stars had a heavyweight matchup with Rio 2016 bronze medalists Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, against who they played in the Olympic semifinals, and prevailed with a 21-18, 21-18 win. It was the first time the teams met since Rio.

“We knew it would be hard, they are a very good team,” Alison said. “Our serving made the difference. I felt they lost their patience with the wind in some moments and we took advantage of that. We wanted to be first in the pool and it’s great that we did it. From now on, there will only be great matches.”

The early matchup was seen with good eyes by Bruno, who believes being tested since the beginning makes the team stronger as the tournament progresses.

“I like being challenged since the start’”, Bruno told us. “Being honest, I don’t’ like when we have those easy 2-0 wins that don’t demand much from us. And here we’ve only had tough games so far. Both teams were very different from each other and we needed to adapt and I like it, because that keeps us alert.”

Qualifiers Pedro Solberg and George Wanderley also finished on top of their pool as they triumphed over Latvian up-and-comers Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs after a three-set battle (12-21, 21-17, 19-17).

Russians Velichko and Stoyanoviskiy suprised Austrians Doppler and Horst

Four other teams also have secured their second straight wins in the Fort Lauderdale Major’s main draw, automatically advancing for the Round of 16. In Pool C, Polish Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak came from behind to defeat Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum in three sets (12-21, 21-19, 15-13).

"It was a good comeback for us after we lost the first set very easily," Losiak commented. "We didn't start well, but step by step we regained our focus and improved our serving. Being concentrated was the key."

Other young team to advance was the temporary partnership of Russians Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko as they defeated vice world champions Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst of Austria in two sets (21-17, 21-17) to lead Pool G. The other Russian team that was competing for the lead of its pool didn’t have the same luck as Nikita Liamin and Viacheslav Krasilnikov couldn’t handle Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira, who prevailed 21-16, 21-16.

Playing in Fort Lauderdale for the first time, Italians Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai has a safe 21-16, 21-12 victory over Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins to win Pool E.  The winners of Pools A and B are yet to be decided.

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