Lausanne, Switzerland, June 28, 2014.  The third day of the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite Lausanne brought the Swiss home favorites Sebastian Chevallier / Alexei Strasser into the semifinals after a great game against Turkey’s Selcuk Sekerci / Murat Giginoglu.  The German team Tim Holler / Jonas Schroeder, which made it to the main draw through country-quota and qualification matches, also qualified for the semis, defeating their compatriots Sebastian Fuchs / Thomas Kaczmarek.

The sun made it in Lausanne this Saturday despite the pessimist meteorological forecast.  The numerous spectators witnessed a very high-level game opposing the top-seeded Chevallier / Strasser from Switzerland and Turkey’s Sekerci / Giginoglu.  The Swiss pair dominated the game during the first two sets with a powerful spiking Seba and a formidable Alexei at the block.  They started to doubt during the third set when he Turks woke up to win it in overtime.  Eventually Chevallier / Strasser won the fourth set for the final 3:1 (15-13, 15-5, 20-22, 15-12).

The second match of the day between the two German teams was a spectacular roller-coaster.  The second-seeded Fuchs / Kaczmarek wanted to repeat the exploit of 2011 when Thomas Kazcmarek won the tournament together with Alexander Walkenhorst.  However, the determination of their surprising opponents had to be taken into account.  The tall Holler along with a literally flying Schroeder managed to win this tight game by 3:2 (15-9, 16-18, 13-15, 15-12, 8-6).

The semifinal opponents of Chevallier / Strasser and Holler / Schroeder for Sunday’s decisive battles will become known later today upon completion of all losers’ bracket games.