Surprisingly or not, Perusic could not stay away from competition for long after his “retirement”. He teamed up with one of Trousil’s previous partners Jiri Sedlak and is about to hit the sand in Ostrava.
“After discussions with our head coach, a decision was made that I would join the national team this year as the sixth player for several selected tournaments. So, I will appear in the qualifiers in Ostrava alongside Jirka Sedlak,” Perusic explained. “A home tournament with a great atmosphere is every athlete's dream. At the Ostrava event, I realized my first achievements and some of the most beautiful experiences of my entire sports career, so I will always be happy to return here. I am already looking forward to it and I hope that spectators will arrive in large numbers even for the Wednesday matches.”
Perusic & Sedlak have already had a successful international debut together, winning a MEVZA zonal tour event in Czechia some two weeks ago. However, in Ostrava they will have to start from Wednesday’s qualifications, along with a number of other strong teams that will have to earn their spots in the main draw, like Argentina’s Tomas Capogrosso & Nicolas Capogrosso, Netherlands’ Leon Luini & Matthew Immers, Canada’s Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett, or Austria’s Paul Pascariuc & Alexander Horst, to name a few.
Serving off at 11:40 local time (09:40 UTC) on May 27, a single round of eight qualifying matches will fill the eight vacancies in the main draw, which is set to get underway on Thursday morning with the first leg of pool play.
A single round robin will determine the final standings in each pool, with the pool winners, the pool runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed teams advancing straight to the eighthfinals. The remaining four third-placed duos will set up two sixteenthfinal fixtures to determine the other two eighthfinalists. Quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will follow on the way to Sunday’s podium in Ostrava.
