Baden, Austria, August 20, 2020 - Moritz Kindl and Mathias Seiser continued their winning ways here Thursday at the Baden Open as the Austrians posted two qualification tournament wins to lead eight teams from five countries into Friday’s pool play rounds at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event.
After winning an Austrian country quota match on Wednesday to secure the third seed in the men’s qualifier, Kindl and Seiser posted victories Thursday over teams from Switzerland and Poland to advance to the main draw in the third annual Baden Open.
Austria had two other men’s pairs capturing qualifying wins Thursday to advance to the main draw in the FIVB World Tour event along with top-seeded Yves Haussener and Quentin Metral of Switzerland. Joining Kindle and Seiser in securing main draw berths were second-seeded Julian Horl/Tobias Winter and fourth-seeded Felix Friedl/Maximilian Trummer.
Women's qualification
Advancing from the women's Baden qualifier were top-seeded Agata Ceynowa/Katarzyna Kociolek of Poland, sixth-seeded Margherita Bianchin/Claudia Scampoli of Italy, seventh-seeded Esmee Bobner/Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland and 12th-seeded Anna-Lena Grune/Lena Ottens of Germany.
Friday’s schedule at the Baden Open will feature 16-team men’s and women’s main draws playing modified pool play. A 12-team single elimination knockout tournament for both genders will be staged Saturday at the Austrian resort south of Vienna with the men’s and women’s semifinals and medal matches being played Sunday.
The 14th event on the 2019-2020 World Tour calendar, the Baden Open marks the 22nd season that Austria has hosted an FIVB event as the European country has staged an international tournament every year since 1997 except for 2013 and 2015 when the nation hosted the European Championships in Klagenfurt.
After the Austrian event this week, three other events are scheduled on the FIVB World Tour starting with next week’s Montpellier Open for men set for August 25-29. Other events on the 2019-2020 calendar are scheduled for Lithuania (Sept. 10-13, Vilnius) for both genders and Cyprus (Sept. 25-27, Larnaka) for women.