Aydin, Turkey, May 18, 2019. Quite a few surprises on the third day of the Aydin Masters in Turkey on the women's tournament. Three out of four teams that have reached the semifinals came from the Round of 12. Swiss Laura Caluori and Dunja Gerson and Russian top seeds Mariia Bochorova/Maria Voronina were among those that had to win both of their matches. In the men's main draw, Friday's pool winners also prevailed in the quarterfinals which gives them the chance to play for the medals on Sunday. All matches will be streamed live on EuroVolley.tv.

In the men’s quarterfinals the German no. 1 seeded Sven Winter and Alexander Walkenhorst played against Turkish team Selçuk Sekerci and Safa Urlu duo and won the match 2-0 with very close sets of 21-18, 22-20. After the match, Urlu said: “It wasn't a good match for us. We lost the match but especially the second set was very dramatic in the end. Thank you to our fans who cheered us on during the game. They were amazing and we enjoyed a great atmosphere today.”

One of the favourites for the title in Aydın, Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Marco Caminati had a fairly easy match-up against Aliaksandr Dziadkou / Pavel Piatrushka of Belarus. The two Eastern Europeans had prevailed over third seeded Finns Jyrki Nurminen and Santeri Siren in the Round of 12, which had cost them almost an hour. Following that effort, the Italians could set them aside quite easily (21-17, 21-15).

Poland’s Maciej Rudol and Jakub Szalankiewicz qualified to the semis after they battled against Norway’s Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen for over an hour. The tiebreak had them gasping for air as all three sets were won by a two-point deficit: 19-21, 23-21, 16-14. 


Mathias Berntsen (NOR) all out after having played for over an hour.

Jasper Bouter/Ruben Penninga of the Netherlands faced Lukas Kazdailis/Arnas Rumsevicius (LTU) who didn't have to play in the Round of 12, because of an injury in the Swedish team of David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig. The two teams were at it for three sets, but eventually the Dutch overcame the Lithuanians 2-1 (20-22, 21-16, 20-18) in 53 minutes in the last match of the men’s quarterfinals. Afterwards Penninga said: "We are happy that we won the game and made it into the semifinals. The crowd is really amazing here. I hope that we get a good result in semis."

Three teams from the Round of 12 through to the semifinals in the women's tournament

Canada Sophie Bukovec/Taylor Pischke faced Sayaka Mizoe/Suzuka Hashimoto of Japan in the quarterfinals. The Canadians reached a convincing win over Italy's Agata Zuccarelli and Gaia Traballi earlier in the afternoon before beating the Japanese in straight sets 21-15, 21-19. Pischke said, "I’m happy that we are the semis and we played a great game. I don’t want to say anything about semis but of course, we want to win the match and get the medals here."

Taylor Pischke (CAN,1)

Russia’s Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina also had to come from the Round of 12 in order to make it to the semifinals. Playing against Greek Vasiliki Arvaniti/Panagiota Karagkouni, the Russian Youth Olympic champions lost the first set, managed to win the second set very narrowly and won a close tiebreaker for a spot in the semis (12-21, 23-21, 15-9). 

Maryna Samoday and Diana Lunina (UKR) faced fellow countrywomen Inna Makhno/Iryna Makhno in the quarterfinals matchup. Samoday and Lunina dominated first set 21-17 but in the second set they lost to the Makhno sisters with a 16-21 score. In the tiebreak set, Samoday/Lunina pulled ahead to win the set 15-9. Samoday said after the match, "It was a very nervous match against a strong opponent. Thank you to the Turkish crowd who supported us."

The third team to have won both of their matches on Saturday were Swiss duo Laura Caluori and Dunja Gerson. In the quarterfinal they faced one of the favourite teams of the tournament, Russians Daria Rudykh/Ksenia Dabizha. The Swiss team won 2-0 (21-16, 21-18). In the Round of 12, they already had beaten Czech Republic's Michala Kvapilová and Michaela Kubickova in a tight three-set-battle.

All semifinal and medal matches streamed live

Just eight more matches to follow on the Aydin Masters, all of them will be streamed LIVE on EuroVolley.tv. We'll start at 8.30 CEST with the men's semifinals, followed by the women's. Sunday afternoon is reserved for the medal matches. The men's final will be played at 15.00 CEST and the women's at 16.00.

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