Italian qualifiers continue winning big in Ostrava

With the first leg of the pool stage played on Thursday, 16 men’s teams secured their spots in the elimination rounds of the J&T Banka Ostrava Beach Open 2021 4-star on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. Among them were young Italian qualifiers Jakob Windisch and Samuele Cottafava, who have already won three big matches on Czech sand this week.

The 22-year-old athletes advanced to the main draw after shutting out two strong opponents in Wednesday’s qualifications, but in their first Pool D match on Thursday, they had to keep their cool through an extended tie-breaker against fifth-seeded compatriots Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi and celebrate with a hard-fought 2-1 (25-23, 17-21, 21-19) victory. In the pool final on Friday, 28th-seeded Windisch and Cottafava will have to face another high-level rival, Trevor Crabb and Tri Bourne of USA.

“Of course, it was a hard match because we played our Italian brothers,” Windisch told Volleyball World. “Until now, we always lost to them. They are really strong, but this time we managed to play a good game. Yesterday too. We are performing well and we just hope to continue like that. We are trying to give our best every match, to play every point as if it were the last and, in the end, if it is our tournament, we will be happy about it.”

Another American duo, Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb, also had to survive an extended third set against Germany’s Armin Dollinger and Clemens Wickler, but won the game by 2-1 (21-15, 18-21, 17-15). In the Pool B winners match, they will challenge second-seeded Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sorum.

The first leg in Pool H featured two three-setters, with 25th-seeded Russians Nikita Liamin and Taras Myskiv producing a 2-1 (21-12, 14-21, 16-14) upset of Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho, and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo turning the course of their match against Austria’s Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst to win by 2-1 (21-23, 21-17, 15-6).

Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins will challenge top-seeded Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner for the first place in Pool A after mounting a 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-11) comeback against experienced Spaniards Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira.

Nils Ehlers and Lars Fluggen also came back from a set down to win their match against Dutchmen Christiaan Varenhorst and Steven van de Velde. The Germans claimed a 2-1 (13-21, 21-19, 15-13) win to challenge reigning world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy of Russia for the top of Pool D.

27th-seeded Ben Saxton and Grant O'Gorman of Canada did the same in upsetting sixth-seeded Russians Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov in a tight 2-1 (17-21, 22-20, 15-13) comeback. Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen will be the Canadians’ next challenge. They also claimed a narrow, but two-set victory over Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs, 2-0 (22-20, 21-19).

Another team emerging from Wednesday’s qualifications, Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, achieved a 2-1 (22-20, 15-21, 15-12) upset of Americans Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser to meet last week’s Sochi winners Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak of Poland in the Pool G final.

Pool C was the only one without any tie-breaks in the first match. The pool winner will be decided in a duel between Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan and Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl.

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Ostrava
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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