Baden, Austria, June 22, 2017. The organisers of the 2017 Baden Masters have been proudly advertising this year’s tournament as the most competitive one they have ever hosted at Strandbad. This was definitely not any over-statement and it became evident on Thursday morning when 16 women’s teams took to the sand to fight for a spot in the Main Draw. After securing U22 European gold last Sunday with Svetlana Kholomina, Russian rising star Nadezda Makroguzova resumed from where she had left only a few days ago to claim two straight wins with regular partner Ekaterina Birlova to progress to the Main Draw.
The depth of the field was especially impressive once Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Rebecca Perry played Marleen van Iersel/Manon Nummerdor-Flier of the Netherlands. Menegatti and van Iersel accounted together for three ‘senior’ European Championship titles – with Menegatti taking the title in 2011 in Kristiansand together with Greta Cicolari and van Iersel achieving the same feat in 2012 and 2014 with two different partners – Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink. These being newly formed teams for the 2017 season, the similarities went even further – since both Perry and Nummerdor-Flier have only recently transitioned from playing indoors to the sand. Perry and Menegatti easily won the first set 21-13 before dissipating a 6-1 lead in the second as van Iersel and Flier fought back to 8-all. It was a close race with the Italians failing to use two match balls before Perry had the last word at 21-19.
However, Menegatti and Perry were still a step away from reaching the Main Draw of the Baden Masters as they were due to take on Russia’s Ekaterina Birlova and Nadezda Makroguzova in the second round of the qualifications. The newly crowned U22 European champion Makroguzova and two-time Olympian Birlova showed no mercy for home favourites Valerie Teufl and Katharina Almer of Austria who could not delight their young fans in attendance as they ended up losing 2-0 to the Russian tandem.
After claiming gold on Sunday at the #EuroBeachVolleyU22 held at the same venue, on Thursday afternoon Makroguzova had something more to celebrate since she and partner Birlova made it to the Main Draw of the Baden Masters after seeing off Menegatti/Perry 2-0 (21-13, 21-19). The Russians served very often on Perry and this disrupted the game plan of the Italian pair. Makroguzova and Birlova dominated from start to end even though Menegatti and Perry provided a bit of ‘suspense’ towards the end of the match as they cancelled two match balls for their opponents to cut their deficit down to one point before losing the game in straight sets.
“It was a difficult game,” Makroguzova commented. “The Italian team is of course very good, but we did a really good job in limiting our own mistakes and worked our way to victory from there. Winning the gold medal meant a lot to me. This is the level that I want to be able to compete at; if we are able to continue to communicate in the same way as we did here today, I think we have a good chance of winning the Baden Masters too,” she concluded.
Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova/Anastasia Barsuk made it to the Main Draw as well following a hard-fought victory over Finland’s youngsters Ida Sinisalo/Nina Ahtiainen (2-1; 21-15, 13-21, 15-8) and a more comprehensive 2-0 win in their all-deciding matchup with Jolien Sinnema and Joy Stubbe of the Netherlands (21-19, 21-16). Riikka Lehtonen and Anniina Parkkinen of Finland achieved the same feat as they fought for 50 minutes in their second-round match against Kinga Kolosinska and Jagoda Gruszczynska of Poland (18-21, 23-21, 15-12). Lehtonen took a break at the end of the 2016 season after failing to qualify to the Rio Olympics but she has come back to the sand as she, Parkkinen and Taru Lahti-Liukkonen share the same coach – now also Lahti’s husband – and a common project in order to keep up with the world’s Beach Volleyball elite.
The last team to secure a spot in the Main Draw on Thursday at the end of a long, incredibly hot day were 2016 U22 European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka of Latvia, who beat the Makhno – Inna and Iryna – twins from Ukraine 2-0 (21-17, 21-16).
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