The Philippines’ sand bets failed to sustain their hot start after falling prey to their respective opponents in Day 2 of the 19th Asian Games women’s beach volleyball preliminary round on Wednesday at the Ningbo Banbianshan Beach Volleyball Centre.
Dij Rodriguez and Gene Eslapor were swept by the favored Chinese duo of Xue Chen and Xinyi Xia, 11-21, 5-21, in the Pool A morning match that only needed 28 minutes to be decided.
Chen, who won back-to-back gold medals in the 2006 Doha and 2010 Guangzhou Asiads, and Xia, who ruled the last two editions of the competition with different partners, easily outclassed the smaller Filipinas to remain unbeaten in two games.
Rodriguez and Eslapor absorbed their first loss after opening the country’s return to the competition in 17 years on a winning note over Shin Jieun and Kim Seyeon of South Korea, 21-11, 21-6, on Tuesday night.
They slid to third spot after Kazakhstan’s Laura Kabulbekova and Nadezhda Ivanchenko joined China in the top spot following a sweep of Sri Lanka.
The tandem of Khylem Progella and Grydelle Matibag suffered the same fate after yielding to Indonesia’s Dhita Juliana and Desi Ratsanari, 14-21, 10-21, in Pool B.
Progella and Matibag, who rallied from a set down to beat Hong Kong’s Wing Tung To and Man Ching Wong, 17-21, 23-21, 15-13, in the opener, were pushed back to third spot behind unbeaten teams Indonesia and Thailand.
Only the top four teams in the four preliminary round pools will advance to the Round of 16.
Meanwhile, Jude Garcia and James Buytrago gave the fancied Chinese pair of Wu Jiaxin and Abuduhalikejiang Mutailipu a scare only to fall short in the end, 18-21, 22-20, 16-18, in their debut in men’s play.
