08/11/2019 18:00
Home heroes Faiga and Ohana seal historic semi-final spot for Israel in Tel Aviv
2019 FIVB World Tour 1-Star - Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, Israel, November 8, 2019. What an exciting way to finish the third day of competition at the historic 1-Star FIVB World Tour event at Frishman beach in Tel Aviv! An ecstatic crowd looked on as home heroes Sean Faiga and Netanel Amiram Ohana (pictured) secured the first semi-final appearance for Israel in a tournament of this calibre, doing so after beating Russia’s Petr Bakhnar and Yury Bogatov 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-13) in a wonderful thriller. On Saturday at 11 am local time, the Israelis will play Martin Trans Hansen and Daniel Thomsen from Denmark – the second seed of the competition – hoping to reach the finals, and win the first FIVB World Tour medal in their career. Live streaming of all of Saturday’s medal matches will be available on the CEV’s very own OTT platform EuroVolleyTV.
Samuele Cottafava and Jakob Windisch (Italy), seeded first in the tournament, were the first to make it to the semi-finals in the men’s competition, with a comprehensive 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) win over Timothy Brewster and Travis Mewhirter (USA) after 36 minutes. They will play against Russia’s Serguei Prokopiev and Aleksandr Kramarenko in a quality match. Prokopiev has just returned to international competition and he is contesting in Tel Aviv his first FIVB World Tour event since 2015.
Among the four teams who found their way to the semis in the women’s competition are Japanese Kaho Sakaguchi/Reika Murakami, who will play against the ambitious Russians Ekaterina Syrtseva and Alexandra Moiseeva, who struggled to beat Sarah Cools and Lisa Van den Vonder (Belgium), but eventually prevailed 2-1 (21-17, 12-21, 15-13).
View of the centre court in Tel Aviv during a Round of 12 match between teams from Israel and USA.
Kaho Sakaguchi and Reika Murakami had a rough first set against Franziska Friedl and Eva Pfeffer (Austria) in the quarter-finals, but the two moved to the next stage of the competition after a 2-0 (22-20, 21-11) victory. Austrian favourites Eva Freiberger an Valerie Teufl also got the ticket to the semi-finals after an extremely tense game against Denmark’s Cecilie Køllner Olsen and Sofia Nørager Bisgaard, 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-13). Simone Marie Okholm Hansen and Line Trans Hansen from Denmark will be waiting for them in the final four after winning 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 15-11) against Melissa Fuchs and Delaney Knudsen from the USA.
As for the other local teams, Sofia Starikov and Anita Dave had hoped to qualify for the quarterfinals before playing in the Round of 12 against Fuchs and Knudsen, but did not move on, despite providing a worthy fight to their rivals in both sets, finally losing 0-2 (19-21, 22-24).
Ofri Masuri and Eylon Elazar, the surprising young Israelis who finished second in Pool C on Friday, sealed their appearance at home with a loss in the Round of 12, 0-2 (13-21, 21-23) to Americans Brewster and Mewhirter.
Earlier in the day, youngsters Tomer Hadar and River Day finished their first experience in the FIVB World Tour with a second loss, 1-2 (14-21, 21-16, 7-15) again to Brewster and Mewhirter. Hen Meir and Alon Sandrovich lost 0-2 to Japan’s Yu Koshikawa and Jumpei Ikeda 0-2 (19-21, 16-21) and did not make it through the pool stage.
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