Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 30, 2020 - Teams from Austria and Hungary dominated a day of qualification matches at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star event in Ljubljana on Thursday, the first international beach volleyball competition to take place after the four-month break imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Women's qualification tournament
Italy's Chiara They/Dalila Varrassi justified their standing as qualification favourites by beating their compatriots Valentina Cali/Eleonora Annibalini. The second team entering the main draw from the women's qualifiers were Hungary's Eszter and Zsofia Vasvari, who eliminated their usual sparring partners Patricia Juraszik/Lilla Villam, also from Hungary, from the competition.
"We usually practice together with Patricia and Lilla, so we know each other very well and that is why our matches are always hard to play. Sometimes they win, sometimes we do. The first set was fantastic, we started with a five-point lead. Fortunately, we won that set, but in the second one we were really tired, because of the hot weather. We are very happy that we qualified for the final round for the first time," commented Zsofia Vasvari.
Swiss duo Kim Huber/Joelle Rohrer remained undefeated after two matches.
"It was a tough game, it was super hot. It's so nice to play again and to play here in Ljubljana. And it's really nice to play against opponents who are not from Switzerland," commented Rohrer, after a solid win against Slovenia's vice-champions Lana Žužek/Zala Špoljarič.
The match between Latvia's Marta Ozolina/Luize Skrastina and Hungary's Panna Györi/Dorottyja Szabó decided the last team to proceed to the main draw from the women's qualifiers. Györi/Szabó proved to be the better team this time around.
Men's qualification tournament
In the men's competition, Germany's Rudy Schneider/Simon Pfretzschner earned their spot in tomorrow's main draw after two solid performances. The duo upset the first seeded team of the qualification tournament, Italy's Alex Ranghieri/Daniele Sablone in their second match, while Austria's Moritz Fabian Kindl/Mathias Seiser also claimed another spot in tomorrow's main draw.
"Finally, after three years we managed to qualify for the main draw. It was a crazy game, temperatures were way too high for me. But I am glad that we got into the main draw and I hope for many more games," said a happy Kindl at the end of an exhausting day in Črnuče.
Meanwhile, Austrian Maximilian Trummer admitted he and his partner Felix Friedl struggled throughout their match.
"We played against the Swiss. We really weren't doing good on the reception and setting in the first quarter of both sets, so we had a lot of trouble to find a way back to our usual performance levels. In the end we managed to win our two sets and we are happy that we secured ourselves a spot in the main draw."
Italy's Tobia Marchetto/Alberto Di Silvestre are the fourth men's team Slovenia's beach volleyball fans will be able to follow from the qualifiers in Črnuče on Friday.
The main draw of the tournament will start at 9.00 in the morning with men's pool phase matches at the Ludus sports park.
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Ljubljana