11/09/2014 16:26
4 teams with perfect record after first day of main draw action at Baku Masters
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Baku Masters
Baku, Azerbaijan, September 11, 2014. The main draw of the women’s competition at the Baku Masters – fifth and last stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – got started on Thursday at Heyat Rest Area right on the shores of the Caspian Sea with the first matches on schedule for pool play. The 16 teams seeded in the main draw were divided into four pools for the start of the first major international competition ever organised in Baku whose winners and runners-up will claim a spot for their country in the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship.
The first day of action provided the fans with a series of exciting matches. Germany’s Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner, who yesterday had made the main draw via the qualification round, claimed a very close match with Italy’s Daniela Gioria and Laura Giombini (19-21, 21-19, 19-17). Azerbaijan’s home heroines Zinaida Liubymova and Vivian Da Canceicao Cunha opened their campaign losing in straight sets to Austria’s Stefanie Schwaiger and Lisa Chukwuma (15-21, 24-26) who had lost their qualification match on Wednesday but were nevertheless promoted to the main draw as lucky losers following the last-minute withdrawal of Lithuania’s Monika Povilaityte and Ieva Dumbauskaite. Azerbaijan’s second pair, Iuliia Karimova and Raquel Ferreira, also suffered a setback as they lost 17-21, 12-21 to Germany’s first-seeded Laura Ludwig and Anni Schumacher.
Later in the afternoon, Gioria and Giombini got back on track with a speedy 21-19, 21-13 victory over Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova, a duo that this year claimed two bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour. “We are very pleased with this victory, especially after losing our first match earlier this morning,” Gioria and Giombini said. “It really was our game. Now we need to stay focused also for our last match in the pool which is coming up tomorrow against the team from the Netherlands.”
There was also time to celebrate for the home teams since Azerbaijan’s Zinaida Liubymova and Vivian Da Canceicao Cunha scored a 2:1 victory (17-21, 21-7, 15-12) in their second match of the day with Sweden’s Camilla Nilsson and Tadva Yoken. “We started off very strong in the second set where we changed our game after losing the first one. This is a high-level tournament and the first time we are playing such strong teams like those who have come here to Baku this time,” they said.
Unfortunately Iuliia Karimova and Raquel Ferreira could not emulate their countrywomen as they lost also their second match to Russia’s Ekaterina Syrtseva and Maria Prokopieva in three sets (15-21, 21-15, 13-15). On Friday they will try to make it to the next stage of the competition by claiming at least their last match in Pool A with yet another Russian duo, Evgenia Ukolova/Alexandra Moiseeva.
At the end of the first day, four teams have a perfect record of two wins in as many matches. These are Germany’s Ludwig/Schumacher, Rimke Braakman/Jantine van der Vlist from the Netherlands (pictured), Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth and the winners of this year’s CEV Biel/Bienne Masters, Germany’s Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude.
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