15/08/2013 22:00
Germany off to a perfect start on opening day in Varna
2013 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship
Varna, Bulgaria, August 15, 2013. With a total of 48 matches on four courts situated in the beautiful surrounding of Yuzhen beach in Varna the 2013 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship presented by Mtel has already put its first day of competition behind. Germany is the country that may feel most satisfied with its results as it had a perfect start with six straight-set wins out of six matches played. Halfway through the day the official opening ceremony that boasted the flags of all 28 participating countries was held in the presence of the Mayor of Varna Ivan Portnih. Jury President and CEV Vice President Banu Can-Schürmann took the opportunity to thank the city for hosting the event by presenting a special gift to him on behalf of the CEV.
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The women’s teams played two matches each on day 1 of pool play with many of the duos already securing their tickets to the elimination round. Germany completely took over Pools A and B. #2-seeded Christine Aulenbrock/Anna Behlen completely demolished Turkey’s Ceren Atila/Begum Guven by 2:0 (21-6, 21-8) and then shut out Tjasa Jancar and Kaja Turk from Slovenia by 2:0 (22-20, 21-13) in Pool B, but Ukraine’s Maryna Samoday/Elizaveta Sulima, who also have two straight-set wins so far will challenge the Germans on Friday for the first place in the pool. In Pool A, the other German duo - Kim Behrens/Sandra Seyfferth, opened the action on the central court this morning and disappointed the Bulgarian fans by crushing the local heroines Ivana Boyanova/Dzhesika Nikolova by 2:0 (21-12, 21-6). Later on Behrens/Seyfferth also shut out Israel’s Katrina Zilberman/Kristina Zilberman by 2:0 (21-12, 21-7) to position themselves within reach of Round 2. Nevertheless, Boyanova/Nikolova were able to stay alive and to please the crowd by achieving the only Bulgarian victory of the day – 2:1 (18-21, 21-8, 15-8) against Martina Kovacevic/Ivana Ovcina from Croatia.
The other teams that celebrated two victories on day 1 were Poland’s Agata Oleksy/Jagoda Gruszczynska in Pool C and Karolina Baran/Dorota Strag in Pool G, Russia’s Ksenia Dabizha/Anna Gorbunova and Lithuania's Ieva Dumbauskaite/Monika Povilaityte in Pool D, Austria's Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig and Czech Republic's Hana Tresnáková/Eliška Gálová in Pool E, Spain's Angela Lobato Herrero/Paula Soria Gutiérrez in Pool F, Greece's Anna Spanou/Konstantina Vlachaki in Pool G and Switzerland's Nina Betschart/Anouk Vergé-Dépré in Pool H.
On the men’s side, the teams played one match each today, so all the spots in the next phase of the Championship are still up for grabs. The longest game of the day was the 55-minute battle in Pool A between Balkan neighbors Mate Glaurdic/Niksa Dellorco from Croatia and Rasko Jovanovic/Sasa Surla from Serbia that ended up with a 2:1 (21-15, 13-21, 15-13) Croatian victory. The other game in the pool was also a very tough dispute between top-seeded Bulgarians Toma Stankov/Silvestar Ivanov and Poland’s Bartlomiej Malec/Pawel Pelka. The local favorites missed out on a couple of consecutive set points that would have set up a tie-breaker. Instead, Malec/Pelka scored 4 points in a row to shut them out by 2:0 (21-19, 22-20). Even more painful for the Bulgarian fans was the failure of Branimir Grozdanov/Martin Ivanov to capitalize on a match point in the second set against the strong Swiss team of Mirco Gerson/Gabriel Kissling and their eventual loss by 1:2 (21-19, 21-23, 9-15).
The 2013 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship will be streamed live on LAOLA1.tv here.
Click here for more detailed information on the Championship.
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