Anapa, Russia, June 30, 2018. The matches featuring some of the rising stars of European Beach Volleyball during the third day of the 2018 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship kept on impressing the fans of the sport with great rallies and close results.
In the 1/8 Finals of the women’s tournament Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina (RUS, pictured) met their compatriots Anna Movchan/ Elena Fediunova (RUS) and claimed a 2-0 victory (21-15, 21-12). The Italian girls Reka Orsi Toth/Chiara They dominated over the Russians Anastasiia Frolova/Aleksandra Ganenko (with the result being 2-0 in their favour; 21-19, 21-19), but lost their next match to Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina (RUS) with 0-2 (14-21, 19-21).
In the semifinal the double gold medallists from last year’s CEV U20 and U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship Bocharova and Voronina will play against the Czech team Martina Maixnerova/Marie-Sara Stochlova who managed to win the match over Aina Munar/Tania Moreno Matveeva from Spain (2-0; 21-14, 21-14).
Mariia Bocharova said that it wasn’t easy to play against Orsi Toth/They: “We played with them at the last U19 World Championship and we could win the match. Today we were focused on the game and we were prepared to fight.”
Martina Maixnerova, player of Czech Republic: “It was our best match in a year, it went like we wanted it to. We are happy that we won today.”
In the other semi-final the Polish team Julia Gierczynska/Patrycja Jundzill will lock horns with the Swiss team Esmée Böbner/Sibelly Gilardi. Gierczynska/Jundzill overcame Mara Betschart/Céline Baumann (SUI) 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) and Böbner/Gilardi won the match with Puk Stubbe/Emma Piersma from the Netherlands 2-0 (21-19, 21-10) as well.
In the quarterfinals of the men’s tournament, Pavel Shustrov/Alexey Gusev from Russia and Yorick de Groot/Matthew Immers from the Netherlands delivered a real Beach Volleyball spectacle, but eventually the Russian team emerged victorious, taking a 2-0 win over their opponents (30-28, 24-22). On the other hand, Denis Shekunov/Dmitrii Veretiuk (RUS) continued with their good performance in the competition, winning also 2-0 (21-10, 21-18) over Joaquin Bello/Javier Bello from England.
In the other section of the bracket, Paul Nicole/Timothée Platre from France grabbed the win vs. David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (SWE) 2-1 (21-17, 14-21, 15-13).
In the semi-finals, Shustrov/Gusev (RUS) will meet with Nicole/Platre and their Russian compatriots Shekunov/Veretiuk will face Paolo Cappio/Jakob Windisch from Italy.
Alexey Gusev, player of Russia: “It was an equal game. Tomorrow we will play in the semi-final with new positive vibes.”
Denis Shekunov (RUS) said that his team had a very serious preparation for the match and they were concentrated on every point in the game.
The big winners will become known on Sunday, when the Medal matches of #EuroBeachVolleyU20 in Anapa will be played.
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