Jurmala, Latvia, July 27, 2018. The main favourites in the pool stage of the 2018 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship have moved onto the next phase of the competition. No big surprises were delivered on Friday when the final standing in the pool stage was determined. On Saturday morning matches for the Round of 24 and Round of 16 with direct elimination will be disputed as the players will lock horns in a battle to qualify for the quarterfinals that will take place on the very same day, but in the afternoon.
More on what happened during Day 2 of #EuroBeachVolleyU22 here:
The fight in the men’s tournament on Friday started with two great matches in Pool E – Timothée Platre/Paul Nicole (FRA) vs. Amit Masuri/Shani Cohen (ISR) and Vili Topio/Janne Marttila (FIN) vs. Denis Shekunov/Dmitrii Veretiuk (RUS). Both favourites claimed victories – the Russian team managed to seize a 2-0 win (21-15, 21-12), while the French had it a bit more difficult, but emerged victorious eventually at 2-1 (21-15, 20-22, 15-10). Later on that day the Russians and the French continued pretty much in the same way after 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-11) and 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) victories vs. Masuri/Cohen and Topio/Marttila respectively. After their second win for the day, Timothée Platre and Paul Nicole said that they are happy with how Day 2 unfolded for them and their aim is to play with pleasure, hoping to go for a medal as well. They pointed out that they are younger than many of their opponents and will look for development in the future as well.
In Pool G the promising Italian team Paolo Cappio/Jakob Windisch, who finished on fourth position at the U20 European Championship back in late June, seized a victory over the team of Rinalds Aispurs/Rinalds Belerts (LAT) with 2-0 (21-16, 21-16), but then lost to the Spanish Alejandro Huerta/Javier Huerta 1-2 (16-21, 21-19, 9-15). “The first match was one the one that worked very well from a technical and psychological point of view. We played very well in the decisive moments; using our heads during all the game,” Cappio stated, while his teammate Windisch added that the aim of the team at the tournament is to play well. “We want to demonstrate the things that we know how to do. The result for us in this tournament is not the most important thing – instead, it is to play good and to show that we are on the right path in developing our careers.”
Day 2 was a successful one for the strong team of Latvia – Mihails Samoilovs/Kristaps Smits, as they seized a very fast 2-0 win (21-6, 21-9) over Maxim Voleanin/Maxim Korsakov from Moldova. Mihails Samoilovs said after the match that the key to success was the calm way of playing: “We weren’t stressed today. Thanks to this game we got to know what the situation on the court is and to play more calmly. The aim is one – the Gold medal!”.
The silver medal winners from the 2016 #EuroBeachVolleyU20 – Aleksandr Kramarenko/Vasilii Ivanov (RUS) had some difficulties today in their Pool C match, meeting Mees Blom/Yorick de Groot (NED). After two intense sets, the Russians showed better spirit in the important points and grabbed the win by 2-0 (34-32, 27-25).
The players that are carrying the hope of the hosts Latvia in the Women’s tournament – Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina had an interesting match on Friday vs. Katja Stam and Mexime van Driel from the Netherlands, with both teams constantly exchanging the lead. Eventually the Latvians edged their opponents 2-0 (25-23, 24-22). Graudina said that this was a very important and tough match for them, having in mind the first place in the group: “The fact that we were able to come back from minus points at the end of both sets and then win, is a very good boost for our confidence.” Kravcenoka was happy as well, stressing that she especially enjoyed the nice atmosphere on the court.
The actual ‘Beach Volleyball Queens’ in this age group – the Russian players Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina were dominating also in Day 2 and finished on first position in Pool B after a 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) victory vs. Dorina Klinger and Ronja Klinger from Austria.
The Italians Claudia Puccinelli and Gaia Traballi stood out as the eventual leaders in Pool C after three victories in as many matches, the last one claimed on Friday vs. Leonie Klinke and Leonie Körtzinger from Germany (2-0; 21-12, 21-14). Both players stated that having won on Thursday vs. Latvia didn’t make them so much happy, because of the way they played: “So we talked to each other in order to understand what was the thing that didn’t go very well. Today our service, defense and block made the difference. We would like to get to the podium, but we are aware that there are many strong teams. We will play our best.”
Click here for further information.