Fethiye, Turkey, September 18, 2014. The 2014 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship, the last under age beach volleyball competition of the year on the CEV calendar, started in Fethiye, Turkey with 19 men’s games on Thursday.
The stars of the future started their campaign with pool play matches, which will come to a conclusion tomorrow, Friday, as 24 teams will qualify for the elimination rounds of the men’s competition.
In Pool A, the Austrian duo Christoph Dressler / Benedikt Kattner tops the current standings with two straight-set victories so far, but it was the home heroes Sefa Urlu / Hasan Huseyin Mermer, who pleased the crowd on the stands the most by securing Turkey’s only win on the first competition day, against Belgium’s Martijn Verspecht / Kwinten Luyckx.
Urlu / Mermer made a bad start losing to Dressler / Kattner by 0:3, but they came back with a straight-set 3:0 (15-6, 15-7, 15-11) victory over the Belgiand in the second game. The other Turkish teams were among the spectators in Fethiye, who cheered them on.
Following this success, the young Turkish duo has gained more self-confidence and faith that it will continue to perform well in this tournament.
“There are eight Turkish teams here and we are all in a process of adaptation,” said Sefa Urlu. “It is the first time we are playing in front of our spectators in such a big tournament. We are not used to it. That is why we struggled in the first games. But we knew that we had to win the second game to advance. Our goal is to finish this pool with two wins.”
“We concentrated very well for the second match and eventually we won. It was the only chance to qualify,” Hasan Huseyin Mermer pointed out. “France, our last opponent in the pool stage, is the best team in this group. But we will defeat them tomorrow. We are as good as any other team in this tournament.”
In addition to Austria’s Dressler / Kattner, Bennet Poniewaz / David Poniewaz from Germany, Michal Bryl / Kacper Kujawiak from Poland and Enrico Rossi / Giacomo De Fabritiis from Italy are the other three teams with two wins on Thursday.
The competition will continue with pool play on Friday and three teams from each pool will advance to the single-elimination rounds.
Click here for more detailed information on the competition.
All Court 1 and Court 2 action in Fethiye is streamed live on LAOLA1.tv.