20/07/2018 19:50
Slukova/Hermannova secure #EuroBeachVolley semi spot with dominant display
2018 CEV DELA Beach Volleyball European Championship
The Hague, The Netherlands, July 20, 2018. On Friday late afternoon, Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova of the Czech Republic became the very first team to secure their spot in the #EuroBeachVolley semis following a dominant display in the quarterfinal match with Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Birlova (21-13, 21-17). In the semis, Slukova/Hermannova will be playing home stars Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands, who claimed a comfortable victory (21-10, 21-17) in their quarterfinal match with Spain’s sensation Amaranta Fernandez and Angela Lobato in Rotterdam.
The quarterfinal held at Sportcampus Zuiderpark in The Hague pitted two silver medal winners from previous editions of the European Beach Volleyball Championship. Hermannova/Slukova and Birlova/Ukolova had lost a European gold medal match to the same opponent – Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst – in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
The opening set soon became a real show of strength by the Czech team, winners of the 4-Star event held in Ostrava a few weeks ago. The second was a slightly closer affair, especially in the early stages where Ukolova and Birlova seemed able to put up a real fight. However, after asking for a timeout, the Czechs resumed their triumphal march and eased to a 2-0 victory, much to the delight of the Czech men’s U20 national team that supported them passionately from the stands. On Saturday, these young players – the reigning U19 European champions – will contest the #EuroVolleyU20M semis in a state-of-the-art venue next to the Beach Volleyball stadium at Sportcampus Zuiderpark.
Slukova and Hermannova seemed to enjoy themselves, especially in such a dominant first set. “I think we complement each other very well, technically but also in terms of our personality,” Slukova said after the match. “We do enjoy ourselves and have fun especially when we are playing well. It may sometimes look easy but we are working very hard to make this happen.”
Their #EuroBeachVolley campaign did not start in the best way – they lost in the pool to Madelein Meppelink and Sanne Keizer of the Netherlands after a very close fight in their opening match with France’s Aline Chamereau and Alexandra Jupiter.
“We did struggle a lot in Rotterdam and Barbora did not know how to deal with me, since I am not the easiest person to get along with when things do not work as I would like to,” Slukova admitted. “We lost the last match in the pool and as a result, we had to move to The Hague. In a way, I was happy with that. With all of the struggles we had in Rotterdam, I just wanted to leave the pool phase behind us and to re-start from scratch again.” After moving to The Hague, the Czechs have swept three matches in a row and they are now in the semis of the continental showpiece event. “We obviously now want to claim the gold medal – this is our only goal,” Marketa concluded.
‘Clash of the Titans’ in men’s quarterfinals
The men’s quarterfinal coming up on Saturday in The Hague will be a real ‘Clash of the Titans’ between home heroes Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen and Latvian superstars Janis Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs. On Friday late afternoon, Brouwer/Meeuwsen must have thought they were going through the same experience again – once more, they had a rocky start to their match with France’s Youssef Krou/Quincy Aye and had to cancel two set points for the opposition before securing a 24-22 win. After that, everything went smoothly for the 2013 world champions who stormed to a 21-15 victory to claim a spot in the quarterfinals. In three of the four matches they have contested this far, Brouwer/Meeuwsen have had to come from behind in at least one set – but in such circumstances they always seem to rise to the occasion, while their opponents, on the other hand, falter.
Home stars Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen are still in contention for #EuroBeachVolley gold
Earlier on Friday, Krou and Aye had caused the first major upset of the tournament in The Hague as they beat Austria’s 2017 World Championship silver medallists Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst 2-1 (25-27, 21-15, 15-9) in a match that lasted 52 minutes.
Late in the evening, Samoilovs/Smedins had to work hard but eventually beat Poland’s Mariusz Prudel and Jakub Szalankiewicz 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) coming from behind in the second set to shape up what is probably the most anticipated match of the whole tournament this far.
Click here for further information.
|