13/09/2014 16:55
Russian and Turkish teams want to upset Dutchmen in final stages of Baku Masters
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Baku Masters
Baku, Azerbaijan, September 13, 2014. The semi-finalists of the men’s competition at the Baku Masters – fifth and last stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – were determined on Saturday as actions continued at Heyat Rest Area right on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Teams from four different countries – Russia, Netherlands, France and Turkey – are still in contention for the title of the Baku Masters and also for the much coveted spot at stake to join next year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in the Netherlands.
The programme got started on early Saturday morning with the last round of pool matches and in the end four teams – including home heroes Bernardo Wermelinger/Leonid Gritsai and Artem Fedorov/Meilton Moses Santos of Azerbaijan – were eliminated from the competition; the other pairs to miss out on a spot for the elimination phase were Serbia’s Sinisa Antonic/Marko Galesev and Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Aliaksandr Kavalenka of Belarus.
Triple European champion Reinder Nummerdor and partner Christiaan Varenhorst of the Netherlands finished the prelims with a perfect record of three wins in as many matches after they exploited the withdrawal of Dziadkou/Kavalenka due to injury. Curiously all matches on schedule for pool play on Saturday morning ended up in straight victories for the eventual pool winners.
After that the elimination stage got started with a series of exciting matches. In the end Nummerdor and Varenhorst, Russia’s Ruslan Bykanov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov, Turkey’s Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gögtepe, as well as France’s Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson qualified for the semis.
Russia’s Bykanov and Krasilnikov fought their way back after losing to France’s Krou/Rowlandson in their pool. They first beat Austria’s Daniel Hupfer and Julian Hörl (21-17, 21-16) and after that did not tremble also in their match up with Greece’s Nikos Zoupanis and Georgios Kotsilianos (21-16, 21-13). “We can say that we have achieved one of the goals we had set for this tournament,” Ruslan and Viacheslav commented. “We had come here to make at least the semis and this is what we have achieved this afternoon. However, our main goal is to be promoted to the gold medal match. It looks like Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst are the strongest competitors for us here. As we play them in the semis, we will stick to the plans and instructions of our coach as we did also today.”
In the second semi-final, Turkey’s Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gögtepe will be playing Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson of France. In the quarter-finals Giginoglu and Gögtepe made an easy work (21-15, 21-15) of their match with 2007 world vice-champion Dmitry Barsouk and his young partner Nikita Liamin of Russia. “The organisation of this tournament is very good and we like the courts and the sand as well,” Murat and Volkan said. “This is a world-class competition and we still have another couple of matches left to win a medal. Together with the team from Holland, we think we can have a shot at the gold medal. Our goal coming here was to finish on the podium.”
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