01/08/2019 18:15
Austrian teams dominate qualification round in Ljubljana
2019 World Tour 1-Star - Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 1, 2019. The second consecutive summer FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star event in Ljubljana brought joy to eight teams, which secured their spots in the Main Draw after an exciting qualification round held on Thursday.
Things did not turn out well for the first seeded Sakurako Fujii and Minori Kumada of Japan, since they lost their second match against Mariota Angelopoulou and Manolina Konstantinou from Cyprus. “We are very happy that we will be playing in the Main Draw. We collected two wins, against England and Japan. For me, this was the first time I managed to beat the Japanese team. We are so happy, and we hope that we will play at least one match on the centre court because the ambiance there is so beautiful. Our basic goal is to qualify for the elimination round,” Angelopoulou was obviously excited after an important win.
Mariota Angelopoulou and Manolina Konstantinou of Cyprus celebrate their qualification for the Main Draw.
The Main Draw ‘mission’ turned out to be a much easier task for the Dutch duo Emma Piersma/Pleun Ypma and Polish pair Kinga Legieta/Marta Lodej who claimed two solid wins. On the other hand, Sweden’s Nina Grawender and Sigrid Simonsson had to give their best to overcome the Swiss couple Kim Huber/Melina Hübscher in the last match of the women’s competition.
Timothy Brewster and Michael Boag upset the crowd in Črnuče by eliminating the home favourites Aleksander Dulai and Manuel Grünvald already in the first round of the qualification. Later on, the Americans, who are playing their only second tournament in the World Tour after last week’s debut in Pinarella di Cervia as a duo, dominated South Africans Grant Goldschmidt and Leo Williams. “We played really well today, tough three sets against the home country this morning and then played a really good match against South Africa. I think it is important for us to focus on controlling our side of the net. We will just keep having fun and play as hard as we can,” Brewster commented.
Timothy Brewster setting for teammate Michael Boag.
Except for the first game, the second round was all about Austrian teams. Florian Ertl/Johannes Kratz, Jakob Reiter/Simon Baldauf, and Maximilian Trummer/Michael Murauer (pictured above) did not leave much chance to their opponents to reach the Main Draw.
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