Jurmala, Latvia, August 23, 2019 - Kusti Nõlvak and Mart Tiisaar from Estonia top their group at the 2019 FIVB World Tour FIVB Jurmala 3-Star defeating Germany’s Philipp Arne Bergmann/Yannick Harms, 2-0 (21-17, 22-20).
Nõlvak/Tiisaar opened their Jurmala campaign with a win over Spain’s César Menéndez Ortego/ Alejandro Huerta Pastor, 2-0 (21-10, 22-20). The Estonians then took on Bergmann/Harms, Y. on centre court for a place in the second round of single elimination.
“It’s always really good to win and especially against such good opponents, we have played them in the past, I think lost twice and won once, so we got a really decent result this time and feels good,” said Tiisaar.
“Mart played like a beast, he was smashing the ball so hard, getting in really good blocks and I was just serving there and setting to him, so it was good,” said Nõlvak.
Kusti Nõlvak (EST) serves in their opening Jurmala match against Spain’s César Menéndez Ortego/ Alejandro Huerta Pastor
Nõlvak/Tiisaar’s best results of the year were two quarterfinal finishes in Sydney 3-Star and Edmonton 3-Star and are happy to be again progressing well through the main draw.
“We haven’t been playing that well for the last month, the European Champs, we had a tough pool and we didn’t have really good matches and so it’s good to see we are finally out of the downfall right now and we are enjoying the game, so that’s a huge step forward for us,” said Nõlvak.
“We wanted to find our game again here because we played really good at the beginning of the season and we haven’t had that run lately so we’re here to find that,” said Tiisaar.
With Estonia just a four hour drive from Jurmala, the team are enjoying the support of some familiar faces.
“We have some relatives and family and friends here cheering for us which is adding to the vibe a lot,” said Tiisaar.
Martins Plavins (LAT) receives the Mikasa in Jurmala
Latvia’s Martins Plavins/Edgars top their group after a nervous start. The Latvian team dropped their opening set before turning the match around to delight the centre court crowd against Estonia’s Timo Anders Lohmus/Mart Tammearu, 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 15-6). In their second match against Lithuania’s Lukas Kazdailis/Arnas Rumsevicius, the Latvians were confident earning the win, 2-0 (21-16, 21-19).
Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins also end the day at the top of their pool defeating qualifiers Poland’s Marin Chiniewicz/Michal Korycki in their opening match, 2-0 (21-19, 21-13) and then Nejc Zemljak/Jan Pokeršnik to close the day, 2-0 (21-19, 21-18).
Aleksandrs Samoilovs (LAT) faces Martin Chiniewicz (POL) during Jurmala pool play
Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Pavel Piatrushka from Belarus top pool C after beating Jurmala number three seeds USA’s Stafford Slick/William Allen, 2-0 (22-20, 21-13).
Pavel Piatrushka and Aliaksandr Dziadkou (BLR) top their Jurmala pool
An all American match decided the winner of pool F. Casey Patterson/Chase Budinger and Miles Evans/William Kolinske fought it out in a 53 minute back and forth, before Patterson/Budinger closed it, 2-1 (21-17, 22-24, 15-11).
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