Qualifier return ends well for Kantor & Losiak

Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak have been among the best teams in the world over the last few years. Playing in FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour qualifiers hasn’t really been a thing for the Polish, but on Thursday they had a taste of that process at the second 4-star event of the Cancun Hub in Mexico.

Seeded sixth in the qualifier in Mexico, the Rio 2016 Olympians secured a pair of wins to clinch their main draw berth. First, they took down Nicaragua’s Dany Lopez and Ruben Mora 2-0 (21-7, 21-11). In the second match, they defeated Argentineans Nicolas Capogrosso and Julian Azaad in three sets (21-13, 19-21, 15-11).

It was their first time in a qualifier since 2015, when they failed to advance in an event in Long Beach, USA.

“It was something new for us, we hadn’t been in the qualifier in quite some time”, Losiak explained. “The most important thing was advancing and we did it, but the truth is we haven’t played really well. We’ll need to do better in the main draw but tomorrow is another day and we’ll try and do better.”  

With the first step of their journey in the second tournament achieved, they immediately have another one in mind. Currently ranked 22nd in the provisional Olympic ranking, the Polish pair certainly need a better finish than the 25th-place they got in the first tournament in Mexico.

“I think we need to be more aggressive and have fun onthe court,” the 28-year-old defender added. “We had some problems and injuries over the last few years, our level of play dropped and we’re yet to find a way to get back to our best. I believe it starts with being aggressive and we’re not in a great sport with regards to Olympic qualification, so we really need do to better than we were in the first tournament.”

The qualifier in Cancun had two major upsets with arguably the most notable of them being the victory of 18th-seeded, 19-year-old Swedish pair David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig over second-seeded Martin Ermacora and Moritz Pristauz of Austria. The two, who won the 2018 Youth Olympics, eliminated the Austrians, who finished fourth in the first tournament in Mexico, on Tuesday, with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) win.

Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot also surprised as the 30th-seeded Dutch moved on with a 2-1 (26-24, 13-21, 15-6) triumph over 14th-seeded Italians Jakob Windisch and Samuele Cottafava. Earlier, they knocked down the third-seeded Russians Nikita Liamin, a bronze medallist at the 2017 FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championship, and Taras Myskiv with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) win.

The five other teams to advance were top-seeded Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb of the USA, fifth-seeded Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter of Canada, ninth-seeded Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer of Switzerland, tenth-seeded Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller of Austria and 20th-seeded Maciej Rudol/Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland.

The main draw starts on Friday will be streamed live on the Beach Volleyball World Youtube channel. Subscribe, log in and set reminders to receive notifications when streams begin.

Go to:
Cancun Hub - 2nd event
Cancun Hub - 2nd event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women

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