Top seeds Petr Bakhnar / Valeriy Samoday of Russia set off Friday to defend their title as the Men's Main Draw of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Sofia 3 Open gets underway at the facilities of Sofia Beach on the outskirts of the Bulgarian capital.
This is the third of a series of three one-star Sofia Open tournaments this season. Bakhnar and Samoday had won the previous event with a victory in the final over Portugal's Joao Pedrosa / Hugo Campos. Another Russian pair, Aleksandr Kramarenko / Maksim Hudyakov had claimed gold at the Sofia 1 Open in May.
But Bakhnar / Samoday are the only Russian team in the Main Draw of Sofia 3, after top seeds of the qualifiers, Vsevolod Bobrikov / Vladislav Mikhalev crashed out of the tournament as local favourites Dimitar Kalchev / Ivan Latunov of Bulgaria sailed through to the top 16 with a solid 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) win in the deciding match.
Kalchev / Latunov had previously overwhelmed Italy's Emanuele Labate / Lorenzo Panerati 2-0 (21-9, 21-6) in the first round of the qualifiers.
They were the second Bulgarian team to make it through after Neven Neshev / Delcho Raev edged the Netherlands' Erik Nijland / Thijmen Heemskerk 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 19-17) in a thrilling comeback of almost an hour.
The two Bulgarian pairs join three teams who were directly in the Main Draw for a total of five host country duos in the last 16.
Brazil's Vinicius Gomes / Matheus Maia with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) win over Moldova's Maxim Voleanin / Timofei Chisleacov and second-seeded Jindrich Weiss / Donovan Dzavoronok who overcame fellow Czechs Ondrej Sotola / Martin Pihera 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) make up the numbers to complete the 16-team Main Draw.
The Main Draw of this men's-only tournament begins Friday, with the medals matches scheduled for Sunday.
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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