Alanya, Turkey, July 15, 2017. Pairs from Germany and Finland are the first two that qualified for Sunday’s semifinals at the 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Alanya Masters by continuing their winning streaks into the third round of main draw competition.
Fifth-seeded Sandra Ittlinger and Teresa Mersmann from Germany were the first ones to advance after a tough encounter with top-seeded Ukrainians Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova. The game extended to a tie-breaker third set, where the Germans were more concentrated and battled on to a 2-1 (21-13, 18-21, 15-12) victory.
The other German duo, third-seeded Kim Behrens and Anni Schumacher, started well in their match against second-seeded Finns Taru Lahti-Liukkonen and Anniina Parkkinen. They opened up a wide gap, but Lahti and Parkkinen managed to catch up and turn the course of the first set in their favour. In the second, they were already well in control and cruised on to a 2-0 (21-19, 21-13).
“It feels great! We played a very good game. Germany was a tough team,” said 20-year-old Anniina Parkkinen after the match. “This is my first time in the semifinals at this level and it feels amazing!”
“We are switching between three players this season. Now the two of us made it to the semifinals, so it feels super!” 24-year-old Taru Lahti added. “Of the three matches we have played here so far, the first one, against Poland, was the toughest one. Now I will rest until tomorrow and we are looking forward to meeting our next opponents.”
Saturday’s losers’ bracket matches also offered some very exciting battles. As many as three of the six games were decided in tie-breaker sets. Action will resume at 10:00 local time on Sunday with a last losers’ bracket round fixture between Behrens and Schumacher and Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo McMillan and Paula Soria Gutiérrez. The winner of that game will face Ittlinger and Mersmann in what could potentially be an all-German semifinal аt 12:00. Davidova and Shchypkova will meet Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Rebecca Perry to determine the last semifinalist to face Lahti and Parkkinen for a place in the big final.
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