PARIS: There were Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, trying to wrap their heads around the moment.
These are not some starry-eyed young athletes on a world stage for the first time. Hughes is 29. Cheng is 28. They’re the defending FIVB world champions and one of the greatest duos in college volleyball history. They once rattled off 103 straight wins at the University of Southern California and finished their NCAA career with a 147-4 record and two national titles. They’ve seen some things.
But this was Sunday night in Paris. Cheng and Hughes walked onto the sand for their first match of the 2024 Olympics, waving to a packed house of 12,000 fans, and went through some quick prematch warmups. They tried to treat it like any other night. Then they sat and waited.
The sun had set about an hour earlier in Paris, leaving behind an orange glow blending with a blue-black sky. And in that sky, directly above this beach volleyball stadium, loomed the Eiffel Tower. Right there. Perhaps the single-most known structure in the world — 1,083 feet of iron and trusses and rivets and pillars — staring down at them.
The lights snapped off in the stadium. Out came the phones. All of them. All 12,000. The crowd vibrated with anticipation. Over the speakers, the tick-tock of a clock counted down faster and faster as low lights turned the stadium pink, then purple, then red. The clock struck 10 p.m. Then the Eiffel Tower, as it does every night at the same time, lit up in a glimmer of sparkling lights as fans clapped along.
If there’s a stadium anywhere that can match that view, we’ve yet to see it.
"That was iconic," Cheng said later.
In what rapidly evolved into a Summer Olympic arms race of beach volleyball venues being placed in the boldest locations possible, Paris 2024 organizers walked in and flipped the table over. They decided to place their sandpit directly in the middle of the Champ de Mars, the public green space at the foot of the tower. This prime real estate is typically filled with families, groups of friends, street artists, and young lovers. Of all 32 sports being played in these Olympics, none has a location that rivals beach volleyball. Tickets are hard to come by and will only get harder as the matches advance and fans’ pictures land on Instagram.
You have to feel sorry for Los Angeles organizers. The plan is for 2028 to be played on the beach in Santa Monica. That sounds great, except when you see what Paris has done. Perhaps atop an O on the Hollywood sign might have been better.
Beach volleyball’s Olympic history dates back to 1996 and a simple artificial beach stadium in Clayton County Park outside Atlanta. Things stepped up around 2012, when London placed a 15,000-seat beach volleyball court in the Horse Guards Parade, the ceremonial parade ground in St. Jamess Park in central London. In 2016, Rio organizers went further, building a stadium directly on Copacabana beach, marrying nature and competition, as L.A. will do. Tokyo placed its stadium in Shiokaze Park.
Then came Paris.
“That’s a memory that will be imprinted on my brain forever,” said Kristen Nuss, a member of the other American women duo in the field, winner of a Saturday night match over Canada. “This will be a hard one to top. I am not sure how anyone else would do it.”
Cheng is the lone US beach volleyball player, male or female, competing in these Games to compete in a previous Olympics. She saw clips of the pre-match show before Nuss and teammate Taryn Kloth’s match on Saturday. She knew what was coming on Sunday. Still, when stadium lights went down and the Eiffel Tower lit up, the moment took over.
“So surreal, so special,” she said.
“The best feeling in the world,” Hughes said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Cheng and Hughes got over the jitters, knocking off the Czech Republic in two sets.
Those jitters, though, are very real. As if competing in the Olympics isn’t enough. The enormity of it all can be overwhelming. It’s easy to feel impossibly small in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. As you know you look like an ant from the top.
“It is mixed feelings because we are so focused on not getting influenced by that, not having a lot of emotions, doing our job,” said Brazilian Andr Loyola Stien.
No one feels that more than the French. On Sunday, Aline Chamereau and Clmence Vieira were hit by waves of emotion when the crowd broke out singing the French national anthem.
“(The fans) are far from us, but we are so warm, so close to each other,” Chamereau said after a loss to Germany.
The feeling will only grow. There are seven more sunsets over the Eiffel Tower Stadium for beach volleyball. Then the venue will host blind football in the Paralympic Games.
Then it will be gone.
Back to Champ de Mars.
What’s it like to play beach volleyball in the Eiffel Tower’s shadow? ‘Iconic’
https://arab.news/9b54n
What’s it like to play beach volleyball in the Eiffel Tower’s shadow? ‘Iconic’
- Beach volleyball’s Olympic history dates back to 1996 and a simple artificial beach stadium in Clayton County Park outside Atlanta
Humbert stuns Tsitsipas as defending champion exits Dubai in first round
- Last year’s winner lost in straight sets to the 2024 champion
- Ugo Humbert will now play the 2022 champion, Andrey Rublev, on Wednesday
DUBAI: Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas crashed out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night, falling in the first round to 2024 title-winner Ugo Humbert under the bright lights of the center court.
The 4-6, 5-7 defeat at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium means the 27-year-old Greek, who left the court with his head bowed, will drop outside the world top 40 for the first time in almost eight years.
The first-round meeting between the two unseeded Dubai champions caught the eye as soon as the main draw took place on Saturday for this week’s ATP 500 tournament. Only seven world ranking places separated the pair and the lower-ranked Humbert, at No. 37, edged the pre-match head-to-head record at 3-1. Tsitsipas has not yet progressed beyond the quarterfinals across five events since the start of the year.
“It was a funny first round — the two last winners of the tournament,” said Humbert, who beat Alexander Bublik in the final here two years ago. “It’s so good to be back where I won the tournament. I have such good memories, and it was a tough battle tonight.”
From the first exchanges, both players dominated their service games with remarkable ease. Tsitsipas only conceded two points in his first four, while Humbert was forced to deuce in just one game. Yet as the scoreline progressed in undramatic fashion to 5-4 to Humbert, and with Tsitsipas’ majestic topspin backhand starting to purr, the Greek’s serve deserted him when he needed it most.
Fewer than 24 hours after he had enjoyed a Ramadan cultural experience that saw him don a dark blue kandura to eat the fast-breaking iftar meal, Tsitsipas demonstrated the season’s spirit of generosity by gifting Humbert a pair of double-faults, an unforced error and, ultimately, the opening set.
The second set followed a similar pattern, with Tsitsipas unable to change the course of the match. Humbert conceded two break points in the first game yet found the resolve to dig deep and hold on. The set stayed on serve for 11 consecutive games until, with Humbert 6-5 up and Tsitsipas serving to stay in the tournament, another two wasteful forehands by the three-time finalist handed Humbert two match points.
The Frenchman took the victory at the first opportunity as Tsitsipas’ third unforced forehand error in sequential points sealed his fate.
“I think today, it was a big battle,” said Humbert. “We both served very well, and I had just a few opportunities and I did it, so I’m super happy. It’s nice to come back to play again on this beautiful court. I have such a nice feeling when I play here and it’s nice to be in (the) second round.”
Next up for Humbert is 2022 champion Andrey Rublev, who eased past France’s Valentin Royer 6-3, 6-4. The energetic Muscovite shuttled around Center Court like a man incapable of letting a ball past him, with more than one seemingly impossible return sent safely back by the 28-year-old.
Royer saved eight second-set break points by the time he levelled the set at 2-2, but Rublev’s serving was at times unplayable. His shot selection must have left his opponent bewildered as he mixed impudent drop shots with returnable volleys at the net.
“It was a great win for me because I knew very well in our first meeting, I lost,” said Rublev. “[Royer’s] a great fighter, and I’m really happy that I was able to take that challenge and go through in straight sets. When you play so late, to have some time to recover before the next match is so important.”
On facing Humbert, he added: “It’s going to be great for me to see my level because Ugo is a great player. He’s hitting the ball really hard; he’s getting better and better, and always fights until the end, playing super aggressive and hitting bombs from all over the place. He’s won here in the past too, so it’s going to be an interesting fight.”
Earlier in the day, eighth seed Jiri Lehecka survived losing the first set to Lucky Loser Luca Nardi — a late injury replacement for France’s Arthur Fils — by recovering to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Czech world No. 22 will face Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta on Wednesday after the qualifier disposed of Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-4.
In the final game on New Court 1, sixth seed Jakub Mensik edged past Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 6-4, 7-6 (7). Mensik will face Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, the world No. 47, who narrowly edged out Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.
Meanwhile on Court 2, world No. 25 Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands — the highest-ranked player not seeded in Dubai this week — defeated Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen 6-3, 6-4 to set-up a mouthwatering second round match against second seed Alexander Bublik.
Elsewhere, Arthur Rinderknech also lost the first set en route to defeating Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The imposing Frenchman will play British fourth seed Jack Draper in the next round. The USA’s Jenson Brooksby, the world No. 49, dispatched Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-3, 6-4 to seal a last-16 tie against seventh seed Karen Khachanov, who required three sets to eliminate Lucky Loser Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3.
