Baden, Austria, May 29, 2014. The weather forecast for the day was not good at all.  Unfortunately, meteorologists were right; all day long.  Despite these tough conditions, all the athletes at the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Baden Masters presented by SPORT.LAND.NÖ showed great performances and fought for every point.

Cornelia Rimser / Sabine Swoboda were the first Austrians coming into action on this qualification day.  But their game against the French team Vanessa Bonacossi / Zoe Cazalet was shorter than expected.  The experienced Austrians played a great overall game and won in two sets – 2:0 (21-15, 21-15).  In the decisive game they faced the 16-year-old newcomers from Belarus Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya / Viktoryia Siakretava.  Unfortunately, block specialist Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya twisted her ankle in the game before and was not able to leave everything on the court.  A solid game by the Austrians was enough to win the match easy by 2:0 (21-16, 21-15).

With Rimser / Swoboda, four female teams will represent the host country in tomorrow’s main draw:  Doris Schwaiger / Stefanie Schwaiger, as well as Barbara Hansel / Bianca Zass and wild card nominees Katharina Schuetzenhöfer / Lena Plesiutschnig.

After a long day and three qualification rounds, three more teams earned qualification for the main draw.  In the decisive third round Riikka Lehtonen / Taru Lahti from Finland defeated Germany’s Yanina Weiland / Anika Krebs by 2:0 (21-19, 21-16), Jenny Heinemann / Katharina Culav from Germany beat the Dutch duo Lauri Luijken / Jolien Sinnema by 2:0 (24-22, 21-17) and Deborah Giaoui / Mathilde Giordano from France overcame Spain’s Ester Ribera Boter / Amaranta Fernandez Navarro by 2:1 (23-21, 24-26, 15-13).

On the men’s side, Austrian hopes got dashed in the second qualification round.  Top-seeded Daniel Muellner / Joerg Wutzl lost to Italian team Matteo Cecchini / Matteo Martino by 1:2 (21-19, 18-21, 10-15).  After playing a very good first set, they lost their groove on offense in the second one.  Matteo Martino got hot in blocking and was the main factor for the game’s turnaround.  Especially in the final set, Muellner / Wutzl could not handle the strong defense of the Italians and lost.

Four men’s teams advanced to the main draw from the qualifications.  In the crucial battles of the third qualification round, Haralds Regza / Armands Abolins from Latvia outplayed Greece’s Georgios Kotsilianos  / Nikos Zoupani by 2:0 (21-17, 23-21), Gianluca Casadei / Paolo Ficosecco from Italy beat Denmark’s Anders Lund Hoyer / Mads Rosager by 2:0 (21-16, 21-17), Iaroslav Gordieiev / Vladyslav Iemelianchyk from Ukraine knocked out Germany’s Bennet Poniewaz / David Poniewaz by 2:0 (21-15, 21-15) and Tim Holler / Jonas Schröder from Germany eliminated Cecchini / Martino by 2:1 (16-21, 22-20, 15-10).