Sochi, Russia, May 3, 2016 - Mykola Babich and Iaroslav Gordieiev had to work "overtime" twice here Tuesday at the US$150,000 Sochi Open, but the Ukrainian pair posted a pair of wins to advance from the qualifier to the Main Draw for this week's FIVB World Tour at the Black Sea coastal resort.
Seeded 16th in the qualifier, Babich and Gordieiev posted a 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-11) win in 48 minutes over top-seeded Maciej Kosiak and Maciej Rudol of Poland to lead eight teams from the qualifier into Wednesday's opening Main Draw rounds where pool play will be featured on the four Beach Volleyball courts at the Sport Inn.
ADVANCEMENT
To gain a spot in the final qualifying round Tuesday, Babich and Gordieiev opened play Tuesday with a come-from-behind win over 17th-seeded Ingars Ivanovs and Ruslans Sorokins of Latvia with a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 15-12) win in 46 minutes.
It is the second time in the last eight months that Babich and Gordieiev have qualified for a FIVB World Tour event in Sochi as the Ukrainians defeated a team from Austria at last September's event at the Sport Inn. With the Sochi Open being Babich and Iaroslav's third FIVB World Tour event together, the pair now has a 3-1 qualifying record with all four matches being three-setters.
61 & 7
While the 36-year old Babich is playing in his 61st FIVB World Tour event with a career best finish of ninth with Sergiy Mykhaylov at a 2008 stop in Klagenfurt, Austria, the 23-year old Gordieiev is competing only for the seventh-time on the international circuit with his best placement being the 25th at the 2015 Sochi Open in September.
SERBIAN QUALIFIERS
Six of the top eight-seeded teams advanced as expected with 10th-seeded Stefan Basta/Lazar Kolaric of Serbia posting a seek-break-through like Babich and Gordieiev. By upsetting seventh-seeded Julio Nascimento and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar, Basta and Kolaric advanced from a FIVB World Tour qualifier for the fourth-time in the last five weeks.
After being stymied in their first-ever FIVB World Tour stop last October in Antalya, Turkey, Basta and Kolaric have won seven-straight qualifying matches with a pair of wins each in Qatar (Doha, April 4) and China (Xiamen, April 12 and Fuzhou, April 19). The Serbians have a streak of four-straight upset wins in their final qualifying matches in Doha, Xiamen, Fuzhou and now Sochi.
EXPECTED
Other pairs advancing from Tuesday’s qualifying rounds to the men’s Main Draw were second-seeded Philip Gabathuler/Mirco Gerson Switzerland, third-seeded Alexandr Dyachenko/Alexey Sidorenko of Kazakhstan, fourth-seeded Christian Garcia/Francisco Alfredo Marco of Spain, fifth-seeded Rihards Finsters/Edgars Tocs of Latvia, sixth-seeded Ruslan Bykanov/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia and eighth-seeded Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Aliaksandr Kavalenka of Belarus.
The Sochi Open has attracted women’s and men’s teams from 32 countries for the second annual event. The Black Sea coastal resort tournament is the first of two events in the Eurasian country this month with Moscow staging a Grand Slam May 24-29.
Following Tuesday’s qualifier and Wednesday and Thursday’s pool play matches, the elimination round matches begin Friday with the semi-finals Saturday. The medal matches will be Sunday where the winning men’s and women’s pairs will each share the $11,000 first-place prizes.
UP NEXT
Following Sochi, the final four FIVB World Tour qualifying events will be played in Turkey (Antalya, 10-15), the United States (Cincinnati, May 17-22), Moscow (May 24-29) and Germany (Hamburg, June 7-12). Also counting towards Olympic qualification will be the European championships June 1-5 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be played August 6-18 on iconic Copacabana.