01/06/2018 20:56
1-Star event up-and-running in Alanya despite rainy conditions
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Alanya
Alanya, Turkey, June 1, 2018. The second day of the 1-Star event in Alanya featured matches from the Main Draw for the men’s as well as for the women’s competition as the teams had to cope with rain and less favourable conditions than for Thursday’s qualification round.
After making it through the qualifications on Thursday, English youngsters Luis and Joaquin Bello returned to the court, losing their first match in the pool stage to Turkey’s Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gögtepe. Germany’s Max-Jonas Karpa and Milan Sievers claimed easily their first match in Pool B where they beat Turkey’s Yusuf Ozdemir and Ali Cebeci 21-12, 21-15.
Turkey’s Safa Urlu and Hasan Hüseyin Mermer secured the host country’s second victory in the tournament with a 21-15, 20-22, 15-12 win in their matchup with Denmark’s Kristoffer Abell and Daniel Thomsen. “It is an important victory for us and for our country. We did not want to have to go through the losers’ bracket and as a result, we fought even harder,” Urlu said. “We feel proud to celebrate this victory for Turkey. Our aim is to finish the tournament among the top three and I believe we can do that,” his partner Mermer added.
In Pool D, Thomas Kunert and Philipp Waller of Austria beat Russia’s Vasilii Ivanov and Sergey Gorbenko 22-20, 21-9.
The women’s Main Draw started with Greece’s Konstantina Tsopoulou and Dimitra Manavi storming to a 21-13, 21-16 victory over Turkey’s Neriman Gencyurek and Güldeniz Önal. Russian Ekaterina Syrtseva and Anna Alova recorded a similarly compelling victory (21-6, 21-19) in their matchup with Agata Zuccarelli and Arianna Barboni of Italy. Turkey’s Müge Ocakci/Merve Celebi lost their two matches in Pool B to Finland’s Nette Tuominen/Ida Sinisalo and Poland’s Marta Lodej/Marta Duda in two sets.
Germany’s Sarah Schneider and Viktoria Seeber did not leave too many chances to another Turkish team, as they beat Merve Nezir and Selin Yurtsever 21-14, 21-18.
One of the highlights of the day came when home stars Aleyna Vence and Bugra Eryildiz played Czech Republic’s Tereza Kotlasova and Daniela Resova. The silver medal winners from the inaugural European Snow Volleyball Championships had the crowd behind them all the way from start to end as they were trying to secure Turkey’s second win in the tournament. They won the first set 21-17 before losing the second one 22-24. The tiebreak was some kind of an early final – such was the ambiance. It was a very close fight under the rain before the hosts and their fans eventually celebrated a 15-13 win.
Click here for further information.
|