Serbia's Milos Milic / Lazar Kolaric edged second-seeded Vladyslav Iemelianchyk / Denys Denysenko of the Ukraine 2-1 (17-21, 24-22, 15-2) and Brazil's Vinicius Gomes / Matheus Maia knocked out the Czech Republic's Jindrich Weiss / Donovan Dzavoronok 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-11) in a clash between two sides that came in through the qualifiers, as the third Sofia Open on the 2021 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour came down to the last four on Saturday.
But defending champions Petr Bakhnar / Valeriy Samoday of Russia shut out Serbia's Djordje Klasnic / Vukasin Rajkovic 2-0 (23-21, 21-15) to make Sunday's semifinals at the Sofia Beach facilities on the outskirts of the Bulgarian capital.
Bakhnar and Samoday, top seeds of Sofia 3, were winners of the Sofia 2 Open last month in the Bulgarian capital. Their fellow Russians Aleksandr Kramarenko / Maksim Hudyakov had won the Sofia 1 tournament in May.
Poland's Jakub Szalankiewicz / Mateusz Florczyk are the fourth semifinalists, after they beat Bulgaria's Milen Stoyanov / Miroslav Gradinarov 2-0 (21-19, 21-15), leaving the hosts without representation for Sunday.
Action on the closing day, Sunday, begins at 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT) with the semifinals, followed by the bronze medal match at 16:00 (13:00 GMT) and the final at 17:00 (14:00 GMT). All four matches will be streamed live on the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) YouTube channel.
The women's tournament of the third Sofia Open will be played next week.
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Sofia 3
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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