Favored Americans Drop Beach Volleyball Opener
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIJING (AP) – Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, the defending beach volleyball world champions and the overwhelming favorites to win the Olympic gold medal, lost their opening match on Saturday night to a Latvian team that was seeded 23rd in the 24-team field.
The Americans, who had won 21 straight international matches, must win their next two matches in pool play to be assured of a spot in the medal round.
Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs, former junior world champions who are the first Latvian team to qualify for the Olympics, won 21-19, 21-18 in the best-of-three set match.
