17/07/2013 19:00
Eight teams advance to Main Draw in Novi Sad
2013 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Novi Sad Masters
Novi Sad, Serbia, July 17, 2013. Teams from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Ukraine could celebrate on Wednesday their qualification for the Main Draw of the Novi Sad Masters – third stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – at the end of a long day there on the banks of the Danube River.
Starting from Thursday morning these pairs will re-start their campaign for valuable FIVB Ranking Points and 25,000 € prize money together with the 16 teams that were pre-seeded in the Main Draw. Serbia’s only representatives in the qualification – Nenad Simeunovic and Nenad Tatic – were edged by Dutchmen Bart Bolsterlee and Tim Oude Elferink in three sets. After losing the opening set 15-21, the local heroes fought their way back and called for the tie-break after comfortably drawing level with a 21-14. The tie-breaker turned into a real thriller with continuous turnarounds before the “Oranjes” had the better at 17-15. On Thursday the local fans in Novi Sad will have three more teams to cheer on as Sasa Surla/Djordje Klasnic, Sinisa Antonic/Marko Galesev, and Miljan Kikovic/Marko Nikolic were all pre-seeded in the Main Draw.
Teams composed of two brothers went through different paths on Wednesday. Swiss duo Jonas and Gabriel Kissling found their way to the Main Draw after a speedy straight win (21-18, 21-18) over David Kufa and Ondrej Pridal of the Czech Republic. Jonas Kissling has returned to Novi Sad after last year he had finished fifth together with former partner Mats Kovatsch. On the other hand, Denmark’s Anders Lund Hoyer and his brother Soeren Svane were not able to join the 16 teams pre-seeded in the Main Draw as they lost to Ukraine’s Eduard Reznik/Iaroslav Gordieiev 1:2 (14-21, 21-17, and 10-15) in the second round of the qualification.
Germany’s Armin Dollinger/Jonas Schröder also booked a ticket to the Main Draw after first edging Bulgaria’s Konstantin Mitev/Nikolay Kolev (21-19, 21-13) before they downed Norway’s Morten Kvamsdal and Oivind Hordvik in straight sets too (24-22, 21-12). Hordvik is a former winner of the Novi Sad tournament – back in 2011 together with former partner Iver Andreas Horrem.
Portugal’s Roberto Mauro Silva Reis and Fabricio Silva were also able to make it through two rounds of the qualification where they beat Finland’s Timo Haavisto/Toni Vahela and Poland’s Damian Wojtasik/Jaroslaw Lech: ‘’For us it is very important to be here because we never had the opportunity to play in this tournament before. We are not so young anymore and we came here without greater expectations than to play good Volleyball and have a good time. This is not my first time in Serbia. I used to play for the indoor national team and we were in Serbia two times for the World League. I like being here because this country is quite similar to Portugal” said Roberto, 33.
With the Main Draw set to start on Thursday at 9 am, Novi Sad is also getting ready to welcome the young players starring in the Zonal Phase tournament scheduled for the inaugural CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup. Players, organizers and spectators are looking forward to another pleasant and sunny competition day at Strand beach, with a light breeze from the Danube River.
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All matches of the Novi Sad Masters are streamed live and for free at www.laola1.tv
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