Moscow, Russia, August 8, 2018 – Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth will try to continue to make up for lost time when they compete in the qualifying round at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Moscow 4-Star tournament on Wednesday.
The Italian pair take on Russia’s Daria Mastikova and Anastasia Petrunina and the winning pair will progress to the main draw that starts on Thursday.
The Moscow 4-Star is the last 4-Star tournament in the 2017-18 season, and runs from August 8-12. The final tournament to take place is the Hamburg 2018 FIVB World Tour Finals that run from August 15-19.
Menegatti and Orsi Toth played together for three years from 2013 to 2016, but when a doping violation ruled Orsi Toth out of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games Menegatti played with Laura Giombini, and later teamed up Rebecca Perry.
Orsi Toth’s two-year ban ended on July 18, 2018 and the pair have already played in two World Tour competitions. They won gold at the Agadir 2-Star tournament and reached the second knockout round at the Vienna 5-Star a week ago.
“Our desire to play well and develop together is there,” Orsi Toth told Italian daily La Repubblica. “We just need to put our training into practice. Things are going well and we need to work on our consistency, but it is great to be back training and working together every day.”
In the men’s side of the draw there is an all-French clash when Maxime Thiercy and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat face Youssef Krou and Quincy Aye.
The teams are closely matched, though Thiercy and Gauthier-Rat have enjoyed slightly better results on the World Tour in 2018. Their best was a second knockout round appearance at The Hague 4-Star in January, but Krou and Aye did go further in the CEV European Championships in July.