04/08/2018 23:00
Three home teams fighting for a podium finish at Ljubljana 1-Star event
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 4, 2018. A sunny summer Saturday accounted for a lot of good Beach Volleyball and for an amazing atmosphere as well in the centre of the Slovenian capital, where the quarterfinalists of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star/Satellite event emerged at the end of a busy, exciting day.
The competition in the women’s tournament proved once again to be extremely tough, since many of the pool matches needed three sets to determine the eventual winners. Slovenia’s home favourites Ana Skarlovnik and Jelena Pešić, who received a wild card to participate in the event, claimed a close 2-0 (24-22, 21-19) victory over the first-seeded Czech duo Martina Bonnerova and Martina Maixnerova to open proceedings. The second match of the experienced Slovenians was even tighter, as they managed to edge Poland’s Agata Ceynowa and Martyna Kloda 2-1 (19-21, 21-13, 15-11). Pešić was quite surprised that they reached the quarterfinals after two straight wins in the pool phase: “I think our biggest mistake is that we underestimate how good we can play. We have been having a great tournament this far, although we did not deliver our best performance in the second match. We do not have any big expectations for tomorrow, we just want to do our best and we will see how far this will take us.”
A full house in the city centre of Ljubljana for the 1-Star/Satellite event held in the Slovenian capital
The other teams that made it straight to the quarterfinals are the Makhno twin sisters from Ukraine, Czech Republic’s Sara Olivova/Tereza Pluharova and Switzerland’s Esmée Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré. Australians Nicole Laird and Brittany Kendall, Poland’s Ceynowa and Kloda, as well as another two Czech teams – Tereza Kotlasova/Daniela Resova alongside with Bonnerova and Maixnerova – made it through the elimination round and will face the former four teams in the quarterfinals.
Russia’s Valeriy Samoday/Taras Myskiv, Austria’s Thomas Kunert/Peter Eglseer, Florian Breer/Yves Haussener from Switzerland and Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov/Vladyslav Iemelianchyk did not have any problems in proceeding to the quarterfinals of the men’s tournament. On the other hand, the Pokeršnik brothers from Slovenia lost their respective first matches, thus upsetting a bit the home supporters at the Congress Square. However, they made amends for this initial setback and progressed to the elimination round, where Danijel Pokeršnik and Tadej Boženk (pictured above) faced young countrymen Žiga Kumer and Rok Možič in a repeat of the final match of this year’s national championship, where they claimed a 2-1 (21-14, 17-21, 15-12) win.
Local favourite Jan Pokeršnik in action during the elimination match with Dutchmen Tom van Steenis and Ruben Penninga
Top seeded Nejc Zemljak and Jan Pokeršnik improved the quality of their game with each match they played, outclassing the Dutch duo Tom van Steenis/Ruben Penninga 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) to secure their spot in the next round. “We did not deliver our best performance in the first match but we managed to step up and I must say that I am satisfied with our game. I hope we will repeat this performance tomorrow in the quarterfinals and progress to the evening games,” Jan Pokeršnik commented.
Márcio Gaudie Ley/Arthur Diego Mariano Lanci from Brazil and Oleksii Denin/Denys Denysenko from Ukraine were the last two teams to complete the list of quarterfinalists for the Ljubljana 1-Star/Satellite.
Click here for further information.
|