03/06/2018 11:00
Turkey and Russia to fight for men’s gold in Alanya
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Alanya
Alanya, Turkey, June 2, 2018. Teams from Russia and Turkey will contest the men’s final at the 1-Star event in Alanya on Sunday while tandems from Switzerland and Ukraine will vie for the remaining spot on the podium.
With temperatures rising to 30 °C, teams took to the court first to contest the Round of 12. Volkan Gögtepe (pictured)/Murat Giginoglu were the winners of the Turkish derby with Hasan Hüseyin Mermer/Safa Urlu (25-23, 22-20) in the quarterfinals. Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener re-started their campaign with a hard-fought 2-0 victory (21-18, 21-17) over Austria’s Thomas Kunert/Philipp Waller. Russia’s Maksim Hudyakov/Ruslan Bykanov continued their winning streak as they beat Denmark’s Mads Rosager and Martin Trans Hansen 21-19, 21-16. Oleksii Denin/Denys Denysenko secured the last semi-final spot as they beat another Ukrainian team, i.e. Sergiy Popov/Vladyslav Iemelianchyk 21-17, 21-19.
In the semis, Hudyakov/Bykanov beat Breer/Haussener 21-15, 21-16 while Gögtepe and Giginoglu provided the home fans with something more to cheer about following their 21-15, 21-18 win in the matchup with Denin and Denysenko.
Maksim Hudyakov (RUS) in action in Alanya
Facts and figures
• The Alanya Open is the 391st men’s event on the FIVB World Tour since the start of men’s-sanctioned play in February 1987.
• Four different countries are in a men’s FIVB World Tour “final four” for the 130th-time.
• The teams of Murat Giginoglu/Volkan Gögtepe of Turkey (Lucerne 2015) and Ruslan Bykanov/Maksim Hudyakov of Russia (Aydin 2018) have bronze medal finishes together on the FIVB World Tour.
• The teams of Oleksii Denin/Denys Denysenko of the Ukraine and Florian Breer/Yves Haussener of Switzerland are competing in their first-ever FIVB World tour “final four”.
• Breer and Haussener, who are both 19, won the gold medal at the FIVB U17 World Championships in 2014 in Acapulco, Mexico.
• Russia and Switzerland have each won nine FIVB World Tour men’s gold medals.
• Ilya Leshukov/Konstantin Semenov were the last Russian team to capture a gold medal at the 2018 FIVB World Tour by winning the May 6 title in Mersin, Turkey.
• Turkey and the Ukraine have never won a FIVB World Tour gold medal for men or women.
• Turkey has two men’s bronze medals to its credit, including a third-place finish by Murat Giginoglu/Hasan Hüseyin Mermer at the 2017 World Tour stop in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands.
• The Ukraine’s best placement was a fourth in 2017 by Oleksii Denin/Sergiy Popov at Aalsmeer, The Netherlands.
• The only podium placement by a team from the Ukraine at a FIVB World Tour event was a silver medal finish by Svitlana Baburina/Galyna Osheyko at the 2008 Klagenfurt Grand Slam in Austria.
‘Queens of the Snow’ in contention for gold on home sand
Teams from Turkey, Russia, Italy and Germany progressed to the women’s semi-finals of the 1-Star event in Alanya, Turkey. Saturday featured a long programme with the Round of 12 matches followed by the quarterfinals to determine the composition of Sunday’s semis.
The silver medal winners from the inaugural European Snow Volleyball Championship and 2018 ‘Queens of the Snow’, Bugra Eryildiz/Aleyna Vence played Russian Ekaterina Syrtseva and Anna Alova for a spot in the semis. The home stars could find their rhythm and celebrated a compelling 21-15, 21-17 victory.
Bugra Eryildiz (TUR) celebrates her qualification to the semis
Italy’s Arianna Barboni/Agata Zuccarelli opened the programme of the quarterfinals playing their compatriots Silvia Costantini and Gaia Traballi. After losing the first set, Costantini/Traballi stormed back to claim a 21-23, 21-13, 15-7 victory to move on to the semis.
Germany’s Sarah Schneider/Viktoria Seeber defeated Austrian Ronja Klinger/Valerie Teufl in three sets (21-18, 19-21, 15-12) and qualified for the semis as well.
Russia’s Daria Rudykh/Elizaveta Zayonchkovskaya beat France’s Aline Chamereau/Ophélie Lusson 2-0 (21-16, 21-18), thus taking the last spot in the semis.
Facts and figures
• The Alanya Open is the 353rd women’s event on the FIVB World Tour since the start of women’s-sanctioned play in August 1992.
• Four different countries are in a women’s FIVB World Tour “final four” for the 76th-time.
• Bugra Eryildiz/Aleyna Vence are the first women’s team from Turkey to compete in a FIVB World Tour “final four”.
• Russians Daria Rudykh/Elizaveta Zayonchkovskaya will be seeking to become the 15th women's team to win a FIVB gold medal after qualifying for World Tour Main Draw.
• Qualifier to gold medal winners has happened 15 times previously with Holly McPeak/Misty May-Treanor of the United States accomplishing the feat twice in 2000.
• Aurora Davis/Bree Scarbrough of the United States was the last women’s team to accomplish the feat May 13 in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Germany will be seeking its 20th women’s FIVB World Tour gold medal.
• Sarah Schneider teamed with Anna Behlen to win the last women’s FIVB gold medal for Germany at last month’s World Tour stop in Cambodia (Phnom Penh) on May 6.
• Russia will be seeking its fourth women’s FIVB World Tour gold medal.
• Ksenia Dabizha/Daria Mastikova won Russia's last World Tour gold medal at the FIVB event in Malaysia (Langkawi) on April 29, 2018.
• Italy will be seeking its second women’s FIVB World Tour gold medal.
• Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth won Italy’s only FIVB gold medal at a September 2015 World Tour stop in Sochi, Russia.
• The Alanya Open is the fifth women’s FIVB World Tour event in Turkey.
• The teams from Italy, Russia and Turkey are competing in their first-ever FIVB “final four” of a World Tour event.
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