03/08/2018 20:00
All set for Ljubljana Main Draw after completion of qualifying rounds
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 3, 2018. After as many as 24 matches played at the side courts in Črnuče, the last participants for the Main Draw of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star/Satellite in Ljubljana emerged on Friday afternoon.
Slovenian home hopefuls Nika Bevc/Kaja Kersnik opened the tournament with a 2-0 (21-9, 21-9) victory over Luciana Pierangeli and Simone Sittig from South Africa. Despite catching such a promising start to the competition, they lost against fourth-seeded Eszter Lutter/Szandra Szombathelyi of Hungary, thus failing to make it to the Main Draw in what was their maiden appearance in a 1-Star/Satellite tournament.
Next to Lutter/Szombathelyi, Ukraine’s Maryna Samoday/Diana Lunina, Australia’s Nicole Laird/Brittany Kendall and Tereza Kotlasova/Daniela Resova from Czech Republic made it to the Main Draw. Kotlasova was extremely happy that they made it through the qualifications: “The first match was easy, but the second one was different. It was more about how we played and we definitely made too many mistakes. The weather is good, so we enjoy playing here.” Her teammate Daniela Resova added: “I hope that tomorrow we will deliver a better performance than we did today and maybe we will have some luck with the draw to get a chance to proceed even further.”
Tereza Kotlasova and Daniela Resova (CZE) celebrate their qualification to the Ljubljana Main Draw
Russia’s Valeriy Samoday/Taras Myskiv, Jindrich Weiss/Martin Tichy from Czech Republic, Serbia’s Djordje Klasnic/Marko Plavsic and Austria’s Thomas Kunert/Peter Eglseer made it through the men’s qualification rounds. “We are happy that we made it to the Main Draw after two tough games. This is only our third tournament together, so we still need some time to adjust and deliver our best performance,” Kunert (pictured above) commented. His partner Peter Eglseer agreed that they are still adjusting to each other: “We always look from one game to another. Each game we play brings an improvement, so I hope we can also improve our performance tomorrow in the Main Draw. It depends on the conditions too. It is really hot and the sand is deep, so it is difficult to play for everyone.”
Serbian Djordje Klasnic found it a bit difficult to emerge victorious from today’s matches: “It was hard to play because of the rain that started just before the beginning of our match. We progressed through the qualifications for the first time this year. This is already a good result for us. We are happy to participate in this beautiful event and we hope that tomorrow we will get the chance to play on the centre court.”
Today’s winners join 12 teams per gender already seeded in the Main Draw due to commence on Saturday.
Click here for further information.
|