Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 19, 2018. Nina Betschart/Tanja Hüberli from Switzerland and Germany’s Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider won their fourth match in a row in Utrecht and moved on to face each other in the #EuroBeachVolley quarterfinals. In the men’s tournament reigning champions Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo (ITA) barely made it through to round 1 after losing their final pool match against the Czech Republic. Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira outplayed Dutchmen Jasper Bouter and Christiaan Varenhorst in the fight for top spot in Pool H.

It took a lot of effort for the Swiss team of Betschart and Hüberli to reach the last eight teams. Being faced with Germany’s Karla Borger and Margareta Kozuch, they had to pull out all the stops to push them aside in a three-set match. Borger/Kozuch had previously earned a spot in the Round of 16 after beating Dutch hopefuls Sophie van Gestel and Marloes Wesselink in a close battle. 

Betschart and Hüberli lost the first set to the seventh seed Borger and Kozuch. The German girls started off with a lot of service pressure, which the Swiss had too much difficulty controlling. “When we started to put more pressure on them in serve, we could get more balls in block and defense. That’s what made the difference in the end,” Tanja Hüberli explained. 

In the quarterfinals they will now meet training partners Bieneck/Schneider, who had to deal with Ukranian side Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova. The Germans also have been in Utrecht from the get go, and they can extend their stay for one more day. The Ukraine had beaten Polish duo Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Gromadowska in the afternoon in two sets, but another win was out of question.

Victoria Bieneck: “Ukraine played very good, so we had to fight hard. We are happy to win. The crowd was so cool, it was really nice to play here tonight.”

Another upset in Pool A of the men’s tournament, where Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo, the European champions of 2014, 2016 and 2017, suffered their second loss. Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner came back after losing the first set and made the most of the Italian team’s drop in energy. 

Due to Nicolai/Lupo’s loss, Swiss Nico Beeler and Marco Krattiger reached the eighth finals directly, despite losing to Serbia’s Lazar Kolaric and Stefan Basta. The Italians will now play Heidrich/Gerson of Switzerland and the Czech Republic face off with Dirk Boehlé/Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands.

The orange crowd came out in large numbers again to cheer their compatriots Jasper Bouter and Christiaan Varenhorst on. Despite their support, the Dutchmen never were close enough to beating the European champions of 2013, Herrera and Gavira. The experienced Spanish tandem had a clear strategy, avoid having to block or defend Varenhorst’s hammering spikes. Jasper Bouter had to deal with almost all passing and attacking.

Herrera and Gavira finished top of Pool H and can enjoy a resting day Friday. Bouter/Varenhorst will move to Apeldoorn to battle Germany’s Philipp Arne Bergmann/Yannick Harms. Frenchmen Youssef Krou and Quincy Aye beat Austria’s Tobias Winter and Julian Hörl to move on in the tournament. On Friday, they will play another Austrian team, as Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst are awaiting them in The Hague.

This is how men’s competition is due to continue in the elimination phase following the Drawing of Lots held on Thursday night in The Hague:

(click on the image to enlarge)