01/06/2012 13:20
Italian duo ends its campaign by losing to winners of Baden Masters
2012 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
The Hague/Scheveningen, Netherlands, June 1, 2012. As the tournament resumed on Friday morning in Scheveningen, the players were certainly quite happy that it was not any more as windy as on Thursday and even though the sun was again a distant memory, still it was not that bad as the weather forecasts had originally announced.
The first stage of the knock-out phase in the women’s competition got started with a couple of real surprises, especially as Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova powered past the Nystrom twins thereby taking their revenge after losing the bronze medal match of the CEV Baden Masters this past Saturday. Exploiting their great physical skills, the Slovaks rushed to a flying start in the tie-break (5:0, 7:2) and they did not slow their pace down finally advancing to the next round where they will be challenging the home heroines and pre-favorites Sanne Keizer and Marleen van Iersel in the centre court.
Even though she did not have that high expectations for this tournament as regular partner Marta Menegatti is currently injured, Italy’s Greta Cicolari certainly hoped to make it at the least through this round of play and everything looked pretty promising after she and Laura Giombini clipped a terrific 21-12 in the first set of their match against Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré. This did not last as the Swiss ladies – winners of the CEV Baden Masters this past weekend – clawed back in set 2 to draw level and call for the tie-break, where the “Azzurre” initially set the pace but finally their many errors paved the way with gold for their opponents whose next stop in the competition will be against Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova of the Czech Republic, the duo they edged in the final match of the Baden Masters only six days ago.
This year’s European campaign finished on Friday morning for Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger who lost to Belgium’s Liesbeth Mouha and Katrin Gielen in three sets, while the “orange” derby that opened the daily program in the centre court eventually saw Madelein Meppelink and Sophie van Gestel power past their compatriots Jolien Sinnema and Marloes Wesselink. Meppelink/van Gestel will continue their quest for home glory by playing the 2010 silver medalists Ilka Semmler and Katrin Holtwick of Germany for another match that will be closely followed by the Dutch audience challenging the still “fresh” temperatures offered by the beach located just nearby The Hague.
Additional tickets for the second round of the knock-out phase were pocketed by Vasili Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece via a win in straight sets over 2011 U23 European champions Riemke Braakman and Michelle Stiekema of the Netherlands, and by Germany’s Karla Borger and Britta Büthe – who also needed only two sets to get past Russia’s Vasina/Vozakova – who will challenge their glorious compatriots Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig to stretch their winning streak.
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