Baden, Austria, June 23, 2017. After a thunderstorm in the early hours of Friday, the heat was a bit more ‘bearable’ at the Strandbad but the atmosphere was nevertheless extremely ‘hot’ for the highlight of the day in the men’s competition at the Baden Masters. Home favourites Daniel Müllner and Florian Schnetzer were only two points away from causing a major sensation in their matchup with top-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins of Latvia but the Austrians ended up losing at the tiebreak.
Müllner and Schnetzer took to the sand on Friday to play their fifth game in Baden since their journey had started on Wednesday already with two Country Quota matches before they successfully made it through the qualification round on Thursday. The Austrians put on a show for the home crowd as they joined forces to produce a surprising victory in the first set (22-20).
However, Samoilovs and Smedins were definitely not going to accept an easy loss in their first match on Austrian sand and they fought their way back in the second. Once the perspective of a tiebreak was looming, Müllner and Schnetzer took a time-out and from there started a comeback which accounted for a dramatic final stage of the second set. Samoilovs and Smedins failed to capitalise on many set balls before they eventually emerged victorious at 24-22 and the Austrians had something to regret since an ‘easy’ mistake made by Müllner probably cost them the victory.
That was a big blow for the Austrians and as a result, Samoilovs and Smedins confidently marched towards a 2-1 victory (20-22, 24-22, 15-9) to claim an edge in Pool A before on Saturday they take on Norwegian rising stars Mathias Berntsen and Christian Sandlie Sørum. This is going to be an interesting fixture as well, especially since Berntsen and Sørum have shown they are not afraid of taking on the world’s Beach Volleyball elite in their effort to cement their role as rising force.
This year’s European Championship Final in Jurmala is still almost two months away but it looks like Samoilovs and Smedins are improving their form as they hope to net their second European crown before a home crowd – after they first took gold in Klagenfurt in 2015. “We are really looking forward to the European Championship,” Samoilovs said. “Beach Volleyball is really popular right now in Latvia and with our results we have inspired many young people to take up the sport and play Beach Volleyball. We have planned the 2017 season so that we can be in the best shape when the championship takes place in Jurmala. We expect a big crowd from the pool phase already and hopefully the fans will turn into our third player and help us achieve something big,” he added. “Together with Austria and Poland we probably have the craziest and most knowledgeable Beach Volleyball fans, so I invite as many people as possible from abroad as well, they will enjoy the atmosphere and discover the great beach we have in Jurmala.”
Back to the home teams, on the day where they received a wild card to compete at this year’s World Championship in Vienna, Robin Seidl and Tobias Winter lost 0-2 to Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor (19-21, 15-21). On the other hand, home stars Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst got the crowd on their feet with a comprehensive 2-0 victory (21-16, 21-18) in their matchup with Jonathan Erdmann and Armin Dollinger of Germany. There was no better way to celebrate the result for Horst than to dive into one of the pools available right by the centre court.
Friday’s schedule was slightly adjusted to the needs of the organisers and the next batch of matches will take place on Saturday when many more Austrian fans will flock to the iconic venue at the Strandbad to enjoy Beach Volleyball of the finest level.
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