10/08/2017 23:44
CEV Satellite continues in Vaduz with busy schedule
2017 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vaduz
Vaduz, Liechtenstein, August 10, 2017. Next to tandems from another five nations, two teams from Germany and one from Switzerland qualified on Thursday for the men’s Main Draw of the CEV Satellite in Vaduz, which will start on Friday morning. The two Austrian teams as well as Switzerland’s Mirco Gerson/Michiel Zandbergen, who are the second best team in their home country, did not make it through the qualification round. As for the women, they contested two rounds of the Main Draw as some 800 fans came together in Vaduz with actions continuing under chilly weather conditions.
Florian Schnetzer/Peter Eglseer of Austria, who had won the Small Countries Division tournament held last week in Vaduz, failed to make it to the Main Draw as they clearly lost (14-21, 14-21) to Frenchmen Maxime Thiercy and Romain Di Giantommaso. German twins Bennet Poniewaz/David Poniewaz, on the other hand, easily progressed to the Main Draw as they beat Austria’s Alexander Huber/Julian Hörl in two sets (21-13, 21-12). The German brothers played the ‘grand finale’ of the 2014 edition of the Satellite annually organised in Vaduz. Teams from as many as 11 nations will contest the Main Draw; these include home stars Manuel Gahr/Maximilian von Deichmann of Liechtenstein, but the audience in Vaduz will follow closely their neighbours from Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well.
In addition to Gahr/von Deichmann, Scotland’s Robin Miedzybrodzki/Seain Cook will also be taking part in the Main Draw after taking gold from the SCD event last week – Schnetzer/Eglseer won that tournament but were not eligible to take a medal since they are from Austria and not from any of the so-called Small Countries. Gahr/von Deichmann are the no. 4 seeds in Vaduz and they will start their home campaign on Friday playing Italy’s Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi.
As for the women’s tournament, after making it through the qualification round on Wednesday, Nicole Eiholzer and Dunja Gerson of Switzerland progressed to Round 3 more or less effortlessly. Against the no. 4 seeds of the tournament, Katarina Schillerwein/Cinja Tillmann from Germany, the Swiss had to fight hard but were able to pull out a 2-0 victory (26-24, 23-21). In Round 3, they will meet the Czech team Martina Bonnerova/Sarka Nakladalova, who in the second round were able to defeat the Ukrainian top seeds Valentyna Davidova/Ievgeniia Shchypkova 2-0 (21-18, 21-13).
Jolien Sinnema/Joy Stubbe, currently the best Dutch team and no. 21 in the world, and thus the top class tandem competing in Vaduz, are also through to Round 3 after delivering a classy performance against Elsa Baquerizo/Paula Soria from Spain (2-0; 25-23, 22-20).
The competition in Vaduz resumes on Friday morning with matches starting as early as at 8:30 am local time.
Click here for further information
Live streaming from centre court is available here.
|