Pelhrimov, Czech Republic, January 11, 2018.  Pairs from the Netherlands, Latvia, Slovakia and Russia made their way through the hard-fought women’s qualification tournament at the 2018 CEV Beach Volleyball European Masters in Pelhrimov to advance to the main draw battles starting on Friday.

Judging by the seeding, the biggest surprise was delivered by Slovakia’s Andrea Strbova and Natalia Dubovcova. The 13th-seeded duo fought their way into the second qualification round with a 44-minute 2-1 (21-14, 18-21, 15-13) victory over fourth-seeded Russians Yulia Abalakina and Ksenia Dabizha. Then they managed to achieve a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) shutout of France’s Alexandra Jupiter and Alexia Richard, who had come out victorious from the longest women’s game of the day – a 53-minute three-setter against Spain’s Amaranta Fernández Navarro and Angela Lobato Herrero.

“We played two very difficult matches and won both,” said an elated Andrea Strbova at the end of the day. “We are through, even though we were ranked 13th. We are so happy right now!”

But the Slovaks seem to have no intention on stopping there. “We are looking forward to tomorrow,” Natalia Dubovcova added. “Our performance gets better and better with every set!”

Joy Stubbe and Marleen Ramond-van Iersel from the Netherlands, seeded second in the qualification bracket, cruised to a 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) victory over England's Victoria Palmer and Jessica Grimson in the first round, but their next obstacle before the main draw was a hard one to crack. The Dutch duo managed to defeat Ukraine’s Inna Makhno and Iryna Makhno in the tie-breaker for a 2-1 (21-13, 23-25, 15-8) victory.

Third-seeded Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka also made it through the qualifications, but they had to deal with the uncertainties of the third set in their very first match, when they battled their way to a 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-12) victory over Italy’s 2016 Olympians Laura Giombini and Marta Menegatti. In the decisive round, the young Latvians were quick to dismiss Romania’s Adriana-Maria Matei and Beata Vaida with a 29-minute 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) shutout.

The top-seeded team, however, did not make the cut. For medical reasons, Austria’s Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig had to drop out of their second-round match against Russia’s Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina during the second set. Earlier on Thursday, the Russians had claimed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) victory over Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite and Urte Andriukaityte.

The 16 main draw teams have been distributed into four pools. Action resumes on Friday morning with the first match scheduled for 10:40 local time.

All matches on court 3 will be streamed live on CEV’s YouTube channel and will be available for viewing by the fans in the Czech Republic and all countries where TV rights have not been sold.

To follow the live score of all the games on the event’s webpage, click here.

Engage with the 2018 CEV Beach Volleyball European Masters Pelhrimov on social media by using the competition’s official hashtag #EuroBeachVolley.

Click here for more information on the Pelhrimov Masters.