13/07/2019 22:00
Two Italian teams still in contention at 1-Star event in Alba Adriatica
2019 World Tour 1-Star - Alba Adriatica
Alba Adriatica, Italy, July 13, 2019. Despite the challenging weather conditions, teams fought with everything they had on Saturday to secure a spot in the quarterfinals of the 1-Star World Tour event in Alba Adriatica. In the end, three teams from the Netherlands, two from Italy and one apiece from Greece, Norway and Ukraine made it among the top eight of the competition on the Adriatic coast.
Federica Frasca/Arianna Barboni of Italy claimed consecutive victories in their pool matches with opponents from Sweden and the Netherlands to make it straight to the quarterfinals. After a 2-0 win over Mexime van Driel and Iris Reinders (21-17, 21-14) in their second match of the day, Frasca and Barboni will play on Sunday morning Victoria Faye Kjølberg and Ane Guro Hjortland of Norway for a spot in the semis. The Norwegians beat Germany’s Leonie Klinke and Lisa-Sophie Kotzan to progress to the quarterfinals.
Emi van Driel and Raisa Schoon, silver medal winners from this year’s U20 European Championship, have made it to the quarterfinals too – where they will play Mexime van Driel and Iris Reinders, meaning two sisters will be standing on opposite sides of the net. Katja Stam and Julia Wouters are the third Dutch team to have made it to the quarterfinals – a feat achieved by Ukrainian twin sisters Inna and Iryna Makhno as well.
Home favourites Gaia Traballi and Agata Zuccarelli needed a tiebreak to reach the quarterfinals. Their next opponents will be the Makhno sisters. Margherita Bianchin and Reka Orsi Toth, another Italian team featuring in the Main Draw, lost in the Round of 12 to van Driel/Reinders while Chiara They and Alice Gradini surrendered to Konstantina Tsopoulou and Dimitra Manavi of Greece.
Teams from Sweden and Japan as well as Italy’s qualifiers Jessica Jenifer Luca/Eleonora Annibalini leave the competition as well. Many of the teams struggled with the stormy and windy weather conditions that affected the event on Saturday.
The competition resumes on Sunday morning at 9 am with the quarterfinals before reaching its climax at 4 and 5 pm with the medal matches. The organisers are working hard to cope with the challenging weather and make sure fans will enjoy Beach Volleyball at its finest on Sunday as well.
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