02/08/2019 22:00
Home teams steal the show at 1-Star event in Ljubljana
2019 World Tour 1-Star - Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 2, 2019. Thursday’s qualification round of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star event in Ljubljana was all about Austria in the men’s tournament, but on the second day of the event in Slovenia’s capital, the home teams stole the spotlight.
No less than three Slovenian teams topped their pools, as Danijel Pokeršnik and Jure Peter Bedrač (pictured) who joined forces less than two months ago even upset one of the heavy favourites of the tournament, Ruben Penninga and Jasper Bouter of the Netherlands. “We are very happy that we ended the pool phase with two wins. Ruben and Jasper were, of course, tough opponents, but our solid performance brought us to the quarterfinals. I am looking forward to playing in front of the home crowd tomorrow,” Pokeršnik said after the all-important win.
Besides Tadej Boženk and Vid Jakopin, the second Slovenian pair to qualify among the top eight teams in the competition, Nejc Zemljak and Jan Pokeršnik did not disappoint their fans and moved directly to the quarterfinals as well after their win against Czech Republic’s David Lenc and Filip Habr. “Our goal for today was to claim two victories and qualify directly to the quarterfinals. Lenc and Habr proved to be tough opponents. Although we did not start the match as we planned, we managed to keep the focus, we did not make any mistakes and the win was there,” Pokeršnik was obviously happy about the performance.
Home star Nejc Zemljak is hoping for a first gold medal in Ljubljana.
The Dutch duo Mees Blom/Yorick de Groot was the fourth team to progress directly to the quarterfinals, whilst Austria’s Jakob Reiter/Simon Baldauf and Florian Ertl/Johannes Kratz stormed through to the Round of 12. “We played really well, we served quite well. It was a strong side-out game for both teams, but we were better at the end. After a tie on 16-16, we managed to block and serve well, and that was the key to our success,” the Austrians said.
The last two matches of the day were postponed due to a storm and heavy rain – they will be taking place on Saturday morning instead.
Japan’s Kaho Sakaguchi and Reika Murakami dominated the group stage in the women’s Pool D, where heavy rain halted the competition in Črnuče. Sakaguchi later confirmed that she and her partner have even higher goals than just making it through the group phase: “I am so happy that we made it directly among top eight teams. As for Saturday, I hope for more wins, we even want to go all the way to the end and win the tournament. I am looking forward to playing on the centre court, because of its beautiful location.”
The Makhno sisters are making their fourth appearance in the Slovenian capital.
Inna and Iryna Makhno of Ukraine can call Ljubljana a second home, as this is the fourth time they have come to Slovenia to compete. This time - again - they showed some great actions, and that was enough to claim a spot in the quarterfinals: “The first set of our second match was very hard, because we lost it, but after that, we got our focus back. We started to play better and finally, we won. We are very happy,” the Ukrainian twin sisters said.
Julia Wouters/Katja Stam from the Netherlands and Victoria Faye Kjølberg/Ane Guro Tveit Hjortland from Norway sealed Day 1 with two wins apiece and a ticket to the quarterfinals as well.
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