Daegu, Korea, July 13, 2018 – 12th-seeded Valeria Filkova and Ekaterina Filina of Russia delivered a couple of upsets of higher seeded opponents in the pool stage of the Daegu one-star stop on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and became one of the four pairs to advance directly to the quarterfinals.
Three legs of pool play were held on Friday with top-seeded Phoebe Bell and Jessyka Ngauamo of Australia, second-seeded Nai-Han Kou and Pi Hsin Liu of Chinese Taipei and sixth-seeded Noy Chorin and Anita Deev of Israel also emerging as pool winners with express ticket to the last eight. The last leg, the losers’ matches in the pools, will be played on Saturday to finalize the line-up for the first round of single elimination.
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Filkova and Filina started their day with a 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-11) come-from-behind victory over fifth-seeded Wai Yan Au Yeung and Ting Chi Yuen of Hong Kong in one of only two three-setters on the first competition day. To top the final standings in Pool D, the Russians claimed a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win over fourth-seeded home team Hana Kim and Hyunji Kim.
In Pool C, Chorin and Deev had a tough first match against Hong Kong’s Yuen Mei Wong and Tin Lai Ng, seeded 11th. In what was the longest running match of the day, the Israeli duo hammered out a 47-minute 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-10) victory. In the pool final, Chorin and Deev delivered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) shutout of third-seeded Turks Merve Nezir and Aleyna Vence, bronze medallists from their previous two World Tour participations, at Porec and Manavgat.
Friday’s action at Daegu continued after sundown
Kou and Liu cruised to the top of Pool B with two speedy straight-setters – 2-0 (21-9, 21-8) against Korea’s Youngju Lee and Eun-Mi Si and 2-0 (21-15, 21-11) against Austria’s Anja Doerfler and Stephanie Wiesmeyr.
Receiving a bye in their first-leg match, Bell and Ngauamo needed one win to top Pool A. The top seeds lived up to their status with a 2-0 (21-11, 21-14) victory over Austria’s Eva Freiberger and Valerie Teufl.