Blanton, Fonoimoana Struggle at Manhattan

Funny how fast the Olympic rings turn into targets.

Recent Olympic qualifiers Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana learned that Saturday at the Manhattan Beach Open.

One of two U.S. teams to earn a trip to Sydney next month, Blanton and Fonoimoana struggled throughout the first day of the most prestigious beach tournament on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour. The duo, seeded No. 2, narrowly won their first two matches against substantially lower-seeded teams, and lost to 10th-seeded Eduardo Bacil and Fred Souza, 15-6, in a quarterfinal of the winner’s bracket.

They are still alive in the double-elimination tournament, but barely.

“People are making us work,” said Blanton. “No one’s rolling over, that’s for sure. They’ll be watching the Olympics and saying, ‘Hey, I beat those guys.’ ”

Fonoimoana and Blanton served ineffectively and had less punch on offense than usual.

“I think we’re tired,” said Fonoimoana. “Our legs weren’t as good as we’d really like them to be. But [today] is a different story. We could do some damage and get back into it.”

Blanton and Fonoimoana weren’t the only Sydney-bound team to struggle.

Top-seeded Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego, who live in Southern California and will represent Brazil in the Olympics, also had trouble Saturday, squeaking out a 16-14 victory over eighth-seeded Adam Johnson and Brian Lewis in a quarterfinal.

Loiola and Rego play Dax Holdren and Todd Rogers in a winner’s bracket semifinal today. Bacil and Souza play Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh in the other semifinal.

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Blanton and Fonoimoana learned Saturday they were ninth-seeded in the Sydney Olympics and and will open against No. 16 Oliver Oetke and Andreas Scheuerpflug of Germany.

The other U.S. team, Kevin Wong and Rob Heidger, was seeded No. 7. They play No. 18 Jody Holden and Conrad Leinemann of Canada.

Loiola and Rego were seeded No. 2 and will play No. 23 Matthew Grinlaubs and Joshua Slack of Australia.

Julien Prosser and Lee Zahner of Australia, who finished fourth in the qualifying standings, were seeded No. 1 because they are the top team for the host country.

Men’s beach volleyball begins Sept. 17 at Bondi Beach.