19/05/2018 23:46
Basta and Kolaric vie for historic gold for Serbia at 1-Star event in Aydin
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Aydin
Aydin, Turkey, May 19, 2018. Teams from Serbia (Basta/Kolaric) and Iran (Raoufi/Mirzaali) will contest the men’s final at the 1-Star event in Aydin on Sunday while tandems from Turkey and Russia will vie for the bronze medals. This is the outcome of a long competition day as Turkey celebrated their Youth and Sports Holiday, as the country’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk recognised the importance of sports and the virtues of competitive athletes. Basta/Kolaric will be vying for Serbia’s first-ever gold medal on the World Tour after last week they finished second at a 3-Star event in Lucerne, Switzerland.
With temperatures rising to 30 °C, teams took to the court first to contest the Round of 12 where Spain’s Raul Mesa/Christian Garcia beat Turkey’s Ali Berke Sagir/Engin Özbek 15-21, 21-18, 15-8. Iran’s Raoufi/Mirzaali re-started their campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 victory (21-13, 19-21, 15-13) victory over Poland’s Mateusz Paszkowski and Mateusz Lysikowski. Another Iranian team, Salemi/Vakili progressed to the next round following the withdrawal of Austria’s Thomas Kunert and Philipp Waller. Yusuf Ozdemir and Ali Cebeci of Turkey played a real thriller with Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig, eventually scoring a 21-11, 31-29. “Our opponent was good and it feels great to have won such a long and dramatic second set. Many thanks to the crowd because with their help we were able to pull out this victory,” Ozdemir said.
Simon Boman (SWE) and Abolhamed Mirzaali (IRI) in action during the quarterfinals
The men’s quarterfinals followed next – with Turkey’s Safa Urlu/Hasan Hüseyin Mermer providing the crowd with something to cheer about after their 21-17, 18-21, 15-11 victory over Mesa and Garcia. “It feels good to win for our own crowd,” Mermer said. “We want to win this tournament and finish first once the competition ends.” Iran’s Raoufi/Mirzaali continued their winning streak as they beat Sweden’s Martin Appelgren and Simon Boman 23-21, 21-14. However, their compatriots Salemi/Vakili lost 16-21, 10-21 to Russia’s Ruslan Bykanov and Maksim Hudyakov. Serbia’s Stefan Basta/Lazar Kolaric secured the last semi-final spot as they beat Turkey’s youngsters Ozdemir and Cebeci 21-16, 21-16.
A shot from the Turkey vs. Iran semi-final in Aydin
In the semis, Urlu/Mermer were able to come from behind to win the first set of their semi-final but Iran’s Raoufi/Mirzaali displayed an incredibly strong blocking game and pulled out a 19-21, 21-17, 15-7 victory to silence the Turkish crowd. Their next opponent will be Basta/Kolaric as the Serbian duo beat Bykanov/Hudyakov 21-16, 21-19 to contest their second straight World Tour final after winning silver last week in Lucerne.
Facts and figures
• This is the 32nd season of FIVB World Tour men’s competition. The first event was played in 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• The Aydin Open is the 387th men’s event since February 1987.
• Event No. 388 is being played this weekend in Brazil (Itapema, 4-Star).
• With Iran, Russia, Serbia and Turkey in the ‘final four’, it marks the 129th time that four different countries have advanced to a FIVB World Tour men’s semi-final.
• While Russia has had 47 men’s teams in a FIVB World Tour semi-final, Turkey has advanced its third, and Iran and Serbia their fourth pairs each.
• Russia has claimed 32 FIVB World Tour men’s medals. Iran (three medals), Turkey (2) and Serbia (1) have combined to earn six medals.
• Russia has netted nine FIVB World Tour men’s gold medals with Iran and Serbia’s best finishes being one second each, and Turkey’s third with two bronze medals.
• Russians have won three men’s gold medals this season - Maxim Sivolap/Igor Velichko (October 15 in Qinzhou, China), Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Velichko (April 22 in Xiamen, China) and Ilya Leshukov/Konstantin Semenov (May 6 in Mersin, Turkey)
• Serbia’s Stefan Basta/Lazar Kolaric are competing in their second-straight FIVB World Tour ‘final four’ after placing second last week at Lucerne, Switzerland. The Serbians dropped the Lucerne finale to Trevor Crabb and John Mayer of the United States 2-0 (21-10, 21-16) in 30 minutes.
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