Antalya, Turkey, May 9, 2014. The second day of men’s main draw play at the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite Antalya offered some tough matches. In addition to the bad weather conditions, which have delayed the entire schedule of the competition, the opponents showed some great performances to make things even harder for each other. Two of the four round 3 matches played on Friday went through decisive fifth tie-breaker sets.
Three Austrian pairs found their place among the four yet unbeaten teams so far. Also making it to the quarterfinal round 4 is the #2 seed Aleksandrs Solovejs / Martins Plavins from Latvia, who survived a dramatic five-setter against Germans Max Betzien / Malte Stiel to beat them by 3:2 (12-15, 15-12, 9-15, 15-12, 8-6) in the longest match of the day that lasted 53 minutes.
The #5 seed Peter Eglseer / Felix Koraimann from Austria upset the fourth-seeded Estonians Kristo Kollo / Rivo Vesik by 3:2 (15-12, 12-15, 11-15, 15-13, 7-4), while compatriots Daniel Muellner / Joerg Wutzl, seeded at #3, eliminated Germans Tim Holler / Jonas Schroeder by 3:1 (15-9, 14-16, 15-12, 15-12). Only for the top-seeded Clemens Doppler / Alexander Horst it looked somewhat easier as they knocked out Poles Maciej Kosiak / Maciej Rudol by 3:0 (15-7, 15-8, 15-10) in 28 minutes.
On Saturday morning Doppler / Horst are scheduled to face Eglseer / Koraimann in a battle for a semifinal spot, while Muellner / Wutzl will lock horns with Solovejs / Plavins in the other round 4 match.
In addition to the four losing teams from round 3, still surviving in the losers’ bracket, which will determine the last two semifinalists, are France's Yannick Salvetti / Jean-Baptiste Daguerre, Russia's Andrey Bolgov / Alexey Pastukhov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy / Artem Yarzutkin, Belarus's Aliaksandr Dziadkou / Aliaksandr Kavalenka and Latvia's Haralds Regza / Armands Abolins.
Last year’s semifinalists and host Turkey’s medal hopes Murat Giginoglu / Selcuk Sekerci did not have the chance to make it through to the final day after a 1:3 defeat against Stoyanovskiy / Yarzutkin.
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