FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Antalya Open - Bad weather but Hot matches
ANTALYA OPEN
Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle from Belgium (photo: FIVB)
Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle had a flying start at the FIVB World Tour Antalya Open on Thursday. With two straight wins over USA and Turkey the 14th seeded Belgians already secured a spot in the elimination rounds.
In their opening match 14th seeded Koekelkoren and Van Walle defeated USA’s Stafford Slick and Mark Edwin Burik (19th) 21-19, 21-12 and booked another 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) against home team Yasin Baysal and Ali Osman Nurettin (30th). On Friday they will face third seeded Markus Böckermann and Lars Flügen from Germany for the pool win.
The Antalya Open is only their fourth World Tour event, but the Belgians already claimed 17th and 9th place in their previous two events in Xiamen and Puerto Vallarta. But they still haven’t played more than half of the other teams yet and it’s trial and error every time.
Stefanie Schwaiger and Barbara Hansel upset top seeds Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler 2-1 (21-13, 17-21, 15-11) on Thursday in a direct match for the pool win at the FIVB World Tour Antalya Open.
The 16th seeded Austrians entered the final pool match with a better track record than the Germans; they were leading the series 3-0 against Holtwick and Semmler and booked two straight wins in the pool on Wednesday while Germany lost a set in both games.
But Holtwick and Semmler put up a fight in an attempt to change the odds. “It was a really close game”, Hansel admitted. “The first set was easy, but it got a bit difficult after that. We are happy we could make some good serves in the third. That made a big difference. Against these good teams you need to take a risk. Sometimes it’s a little out and sometimes it’s in. But we made the last point and that is the most important thing.”
The 29-year old Schwaiger and 32-year old Hansel teamed up at the end of last year when Schwaiger’s sister Doris decided to end her beach volleyball career. Since then it was back to qualification most of the tournaments.
Tatyana Mashkova and Irina Tsimbalova from Kazakhstan (photo : FIVB)
In a direct match for first place in pool E twelfth seeded Tatyana Mashkova and Irina Tsimbalova came back from behind against fifth ranked Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Birlova from Russia: 18-21, 21-19, 15-11.
The Kazakh girls have been playing together since 2009, with a couple of fifth places their best result on the World Tour. “We have tried to change teams but we don’t have another strong second team in Kazakhstan. It’s impossible. But we enjoy playing together and we hope to finally win a medal here.”
Four teams finished pool play with three straight wins. Second seeded Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth of Italy, seventh seeded Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grossner from Germany, Finland’s Taru Lahti and Riikka Lehtonen (9th) and Czech pair Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova (13th).
Other pool winners are Argentina’s Ana Galay and Georgina Klug (3rd) and USA’s Jennifer Kessy and Emily Day (6th). All pool winners advance directly to the second elimination round. The numbers two and three in the pool start in the first knockout round.
Source : FIVB
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