While most Brazilian teams started their 2020 seasons at the end of January, Ágatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa and Evandro Gonçalves/Bruno Schmidt decided to continue training at the time. The extra weeks of preseason seem to have worked just fine as the duos stood at the top of the podium of the Brazilian Tour event in Maceió this weekend.
Ágatha and Duda, who are one of the two teams that will represent Brazil at this year’s Olympics, secured the title in their first tournament in 2020 with a 23-21, 21-23, 15-12 gold medal match victory over Victoria Pereira and Tainá Bigi.
“This week was all about going the extra mile,” Ágatha reflected. “We know all teams that advanced to Sunday had played three matches on Saturday but our preparation is focused in July, so it was harder on us. We had to be really patient because sometimes our bodies just wouldn’t do what our minds wanted, so to win this tournament is really special.”
The recently-reunited Taiana Lima and Fernanda Berti upset the other Brazilian Olympic team, Ana Patrícia Ramos and Rebecca Cavalcanti, to take the bronze medal with a 16-21, 25-23, 15-12 win.
Maceió hosted the fifth of seven events scheduled for the 2019-2020 season and Rebecca and Ana Patrícia lead the women’s rankings with 1,440 points, followed by Victoria and Tainá, who have 1,240.
In the men’s tournament, Evandro and Bruno, who are also guaranteed in Tokyo, also needed all three sets (22-20, 19-21, 17-15) to overcome the legendary Ricardo Santos and his partner Vitor Felipe and secure their first gold in 2020.
“It was a really important test for us, especially for our minds,” Evandro reacted. “We played a good first set and were doing well in the second too but we relaxed a little bit. Ricardo felt it and put them back in the game. Fortunately we regained our form in the third set and managed to win.”
2017 world champion André Loyola and his partner George Wanderley finished third after a three-set (26-24, 12-21, 15-13) triumph over Alison Cerutti and Álvaro Filho, who have also been assigned by the Brazilian Federation to represent the country this summer in Tokyo.
André and George are currently at the top of the Brazilian Tour ranking with 1,720 points. They are followed by Ricardo and Vitor, who moved up to 1,440 after their second-place finish in Maceió.
The Brazilian Tour moves to Duda’s hometown Aracaju from March 4-8, before the final stop, which will take place in Arraial do Cabo at the beginning of April.
