Kuvichka & Kislytsyn delight fans with awesome comeback wins

In a men’s competition day full of spectacular three-setters, two Russian teams and representatives from six other countries won the deciding qualification matches to fill in the eight available spots in the 32-men main draw line-up at the Sochi 4-star stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Russia’s Daniil Kuvichka and Anton Kislytsyn were the big heroes of the day as they pleased the home fans with two big three-set wins over strong opponents to become the lowest ranked pair to play in the main draw. The 19th-seeded Russians came from behind on the way to a narrow 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 18-16) victory over Brazil’s Renato Andrew and Vitor Felipe in the first round, and followed up with another great comeback in the decider against third-seeded Canadians Ben Saxton and Grant O'Gorman to win by 2-1 (20-22, 21-15, 15-12).

Having earned a couple of medals at lower-tier World Tour events in 2019, 31-year-old Kuvichka and 28-year-old Kislytsyn started playing in 4-star tournaments in 2021. After failing to go past the qualifications at all three events in Cancun, they finally made it among the best 32 teams in Sochi.

“For us, today is a great day, because it’s the first time our team qualifies to play in the main draw of a 4-star tournament,” Daniil Kuvichka told Volleyball World. “All good teams in the world are here and for us it’s a great result to be in the main draw, especially here, at home, with our Russian fans. It helps us a lot! Our first game against a very good team from Brazil was very difficult and I think we won only because we have such great fans. Tomorrow we will forget about today and hopefully play some more great games...”

Nikita Liamin and Taras Myskiv, the top-seeded team in the qualification bracket, played only one match, but also battled their way back to a 2-1 (15-21, 21-17, 15-5) victory over Poland’s Maciej Rudol and Jakub Szalankiewicz. Unfortunately, at 8-5 in the tie-breaker, Rudol sustained an injury, which prevented him from finishing the match.

Similarly, fourth-seeded Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer of Switzerland played only one game on Wednesday, but it was a spectacular three-setter, in which they turned it around against rising Swedish stars David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig to snatch a 2-1 (20-22, 21-18, 15-13) victory.

Argentina’s Julian Amado Azaad and Nicolas Capogrosso, seeded 11th, also had to work for their spot in Thursday’s main draw. They had to claim two tie-breaker wins to earn it – 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-9) over USA’s Travis Mewhirter and Adam Roberts in the first round, and 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-13) over Germany’s Philipp Arne Bergmann and Yannick Harms in the second.

Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen cruised through the first round to take a speedy straight-setter over Israel’s Netanel Amiram Ohana and Eylon Elazar, but in the second round the eighth-seeded Norwegians had to master a comeback from a set behind to knock out Russia’s Ruslan Bykanov and Alexander Likholetov by 2-1 (23-25, 21-16, 15-12).

Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller and Brazil’s Gustavo Carvalhaes and Arthur Mariano were the other three men’s team to qualify.

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Sochi
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube