Norway cause upset in European Continental Cup Finals

A surprising victory for Norway over Austria highlighted the second day of the European Continental Cup Finals, which ended with four countries in each gender guaranteed a place in Friday’s semifinals in the Dutch coastal city of The Hague.

Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Anne Hjortland, who are playing in their third international event together, and Ingrid Lunde and Emilie Olimstad, who are sharing the courts for the fifth time, upset Katharina Schutzenhofer/Lena Plesiutsching and the Strauss twins Nadine and Teresa respectively to place Norway in the semifinals with a pair of wins in the quarterfinal round.

“It is nice for the four of us to win in both our matches,” Lunde reflected. “We did it also against France yesterday. It helps us to have some more hours to recover.”

The Norwegians, who are trying to take their country back to the Olympics for the first time since Beijing 2008, will now meet hosts the Netherlands, who needed a golden match to down Spain in front of their home crowd.

The other women’s semifinal matchup in The Hague will reunite Greece, who led by three-time Olympian Vasiliki Arvaniti eliminated Poland in a golden match, and Russia, who led by 26-year-old Ksenia Dabizha as their most experienced player swept Ukraine.

The most anticipated meeting of the day in the men’s event also ended in frustration for Austria as the country, which had qualified for the Rio 2016 Games through the Continental Cup, was knocked out by Switzerland in the quarterfinals.

A golden match was needed after victories of Swiss Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer and Austrians Martin Ermarcora/Moritz Pristauz and the Swiss coaching staff made a bold move picking Mirco Gerson to play with Krattiger. The strategy worked and the temporary duo defeated Ermacora and Pristauz to move their country forward.

“We had practiced together only once back in Switzerland,” Gerson reacted. “Honestly, both our teams play exactly the same way. So for us, it wasn’t a big change. Maybe it was a little bit strange for the opponents. They had no idea how we were going to play.”

Switzerland’s next opponents Germany also needed a golden match to move past Spain in the quarterfinals. The second semifinal will reunite two countries that advanced with two victories – hosts the Netherlands, which defeated Belgium, and Latvia, which prevailed over Turkey.

Quarterfinals set in Africa

In Agadir, Morocco, the third day of the African Continental Cup Finals was dedicated to finalizing pool play and now the four quarterfinal matchups in each gender have been determined. Eight countries in each gender remain in contention for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics.

Morocco and Tunisia advanced on pool A of the men’s tournament while Mozambique and Kenya prevailed in pool B. Ghana and Egypt entered the last day of pool play already qualified on pool C while Rwanda joined Gambia as the teams from pool D to advance.

The quarterfinal matchups among the men will be Morocco v Egypt, Mozambique v Kenya, Ghana v Tunisia and Gambia v Rwanda.

Among the women, Rwanda and Gambia joined Morocco, which was already guaranteed, as the teams from pool A in the quarterfinals. Pool B countries to advance were Kenya, Cape Verde and Nigeria. These six nations join Egypt and Mozambique, which were both pre-qualified, in the quarterfinals.

Friday’s quarterfinal matches will have Morocco v Cape Verde, Kenya v Mozambique, Egypt v Rwanda and Gambia v Nigeria.

Continental Cup Finals in Asia, South America and the North and Central American and the Caribbean region (NORCECA) are all set to start on Friday.