27/07/2017 21:51
Mersin Satellite underway with exciting qualification round
2017 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Mersin
Mersin, Turkey, July 27, 2017. The double-gender CEV Satellite Mersin started on Thursday with the qualification round held at Fenerbahce Square as well as at the local Mersin Marina Amphitheatre. Men’s teams from Austria, Germany, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden eventually progressed to the Main Draw – with teams from Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Belgium achieving the same feat in the women’s tournament. The event will continue until Sunday, July 30 where the eventual winners will emerge after four days of exciting Beach Volleyball action.
Turkey’s Selcuk Sekerci and Kemal Sah failed to make it to the Main Draw as they lost a dramatic match to Norway’s Lars Tveit Retterholt and Daniel Bergerud 1-2 (21-19, 22-24, 13-15).
Italy’s Agata Zuccarelli, who reached the Main Draw together with Rio 2016 Olympian Laura Giombini after beating Serbia’s Milena Matic and Marija Milosevic, was pleased with the result. “This is my sixth tournament this season. I really like Mersin. I have played in Antalya, Alanya and Ankara before and I liked all of these places. It is very hot here and this makes things more difficult. Today’s victory is a truly important one since this is the first season together for us. It is important to progress to the Main Draw to get valuable ranking points. We are a new team, but we would like to make it to the later stages of this competition.”
Mr Oğuz Değirmenci, Beach Volleyball Manager at the Turkish Volleyball Federation commented after the first competition day: “We are hosting this tournament in cooperation with the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality with participation of 40 teams from as many as 22 countries. We now look forward to the start of the Main Draw and we expect very close and tight matches. There is prize money and valuable ranking points at stake. As for Turkey, we have four men’s and two women’s teams playing here in Mersin. Murat Giginoglu and Safa Urlu finished second at last week’s European Tour tournament in Slovenia and I hope they can repeat that same performance here. They like Mersin very much because it is so hot and humid here. We look forward to great performances from all of the participating teams. We thank the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality for their support in the organisation of this event.”
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