30/05/2014 20:00
Two Austrian teams still in contention for home glory at Baden Masters
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Baden Masters
Baden, Austria, May 30, 2014. The weather forecasts had anticipated some sunshine for the third day of actions at the Baden Masters and the centre court was fully packed on Friday as the first stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship is entering its most exciting stage. The fans at Strandbad could follow some world-class matches and in the end could be happy with two Austrians teams making it to the next stage and final day of the men’s competition.
The home heroes Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst had an excellent day in Baden. They did not lose any match and eventually made the semis coming up on Saturday. In the first round they did not leave any chance to Ukraine’s young pair Iaroslav Gordieiev and Vladyslav Iemelianchyk cruising to a speedy 21-18, 21-11 victory. Two-time European champion Doppler and Horst did not slow their pace down also in their second match of the day where they shut out their countrymen Tobias Winter and Lorenz Petutschnig by 21-19, 21-17. Their next stop was with Germany’s Tim Holler and Jonas Schröder, who had surprisingly made the third stage of the elimination phase after starting the tournament with the qualification round on Thursday. After losing the first set, Doppler and Horst could change the course of a difficult game cruising to a 2:1 victory (15-21, 21-19, 15-12) to pocket their ticket to the semis. “We are very pleased with our performance but we have to keep focused in order to reach our goals,” Doppler said. 2013 European bronze medalists Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland have also already claimed a spot in the semis.
Austria’s youngsters Lorenz Petutschnig and Tobias Winter provided the local fans with something more to cheer about. After edging past Poland’s Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz with a superb performance (21-17, 21-18) they lost to their compatriots Doppler and Horst, but they got back on track with a hard-fought victory over the experienced Norwegian duo Iver Andreas Horrem and Geir Eithun (21-18, 19-21, 18-16) to continue their adventure. On Saturday morning they will play Italy’s Andrea Tomatis and Alex Ranghieri hoping to continue their quest for a spot in the semis. “It was a great day for us. Baden is an amazing tournament and we want to progress as much as we can in this competition,” Petutschnig said after the victory over Horrem and Eithun.
Though they had sounded very confident at the press conference preceding the start of the Main Draw, the other Austrian top team, Xandi Huber/Robin Seidl, could not live up to the expectations and make the podium as they had intended to. They lost to Robert Kufa and Jan Hadrava from the Czech Republic in the first round (17-21, 21-16, 12-15) and after that they got to play the reigning world champions from the Netherlands, Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen. The Austrians beat the “Oranjes” (21-18, 25-23) but after that they lost to Germany’s Finn Dittelbach and Eric Koreng (12-21, 20-22) to be content with ninth place. “The match with Brouwer and Meeuwsen was the only one today where we showed our potential,” Huber said.
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