11/10/2017 21:00
Number of closely contested matches set tone for Beach Volleyball party in Baku
2017 CEV-EEVZA Beach Volleyball Satellite - Baku
Baku, Azerbaijan, October 11, 2017. The last tournament on schedule for the 2017 Beach Volleyball season started on Wednesday at the iconic Beach Arena in Baku – where a CEV-EEVZA double-gender Satellite is taking place through to Saturday. The qualification round opened proceedings, with the fans enjoying a number of closely contested matches.
The most dramatic match of the day featured Belgium’s Julie De Beule/Nina Coolman and Germany’s Lisa Arnholdt/Sarah Schneider. Germany claimed the first set 21-17 before the Belgians emerged victorious from a thrilling second set (33-31). The Germans regrouped in the tiebreak (15-10), thus sealing their spot in the Main Draw starting on Thursday.
Tjasa Kotnik/Tjasa Jancar of Slovenia – who in early September won a zonal event in Oslo – needed only 28 minutes to beat Mariota Angelopoulou/Daria Gusarova of Cyprus (21-6, 21-14) to progress to the Main Draw as well. Russia’s Elena Fediunova/Aleksandra Ganenko beat Line Trans Hansen/Maria Elisabeth Tyndeskov of Denmark 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-4) to make it to the Main Draw as well after last Sunday they won bronze at an EEVZA event held in Batumi, Georgia. Earlier in the day, Fediunova/Ganenko had beaten Greece’s Dimitra Manavi and Aliki Alexandra Spiliotopoulou in two sets (21-18, 21-18). Mered de Vries and Julia Wouters of the Netherlands rallied to a 2-1 victory (21-16, 20-22, 15-9) over Eniko Lakatos and Eszter Lutter of Hungary but lost the following match to France’s Lézana Placette/Aline Chamereau.
As for the men’s competition, Denmark’s Mads Rosager/Martin Trans Hansen first beat Marcel Myslivecek/Martin Pihera of the Czech Republic in two sets before losing their next match to Austria’s Julian Hörl/Philipp Waller by the same score. Jan Dumek/Vaclav Bercik of the Czech Republic qualified for the Main Draw with a 2-0 victory over Russia’s Pavel Shustrov/Anton Saraev and Turkey’s Yusuf Özdemir/Ali Berke Sagir achieved the same feat as they cruised to a 2-1 victory (15-21, 21-7, 15-9) over Italy’s Matteo Galli/Fabio Matteoni. Russia’s Yury Bogatov and Petr Bakhnar claimed the last spot in the men’s Main Draw as they beat Jannes van der Ham and Sven Vismans of the Netherlands 2-1 (21-16, 13-21, 18-16).
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