Anapa, Russia, July 6, 2018 – Three Chinese duos and a Russian pair made it straight to the quarterfinals, after topping their respective pools in men’s competition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Anapa Open at the VolleyGrad Beach Sports Centre on Friday.
China’s Gao Peng/Yang Li claimed first place in Pool B after a 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 15-12) victory over Japan’s Katsuhiro Shiratori/Takashi Tsuchiya. Another Chinese team, Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin, fought for first place with Brazil’s Marcio Gaudie/Arthur Mariano Lanci with a 2-0 (23-21, 21-12) triumph.
“We played with them in Singapore and we lost,” Ha said. “However, today we left no chance to them as we were extremely motivated to win this match.”
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China’s Li Zhuoxin/Zhou Chawei claimed the top spot in Pool D, beating Russia’s Pavel Shustrov/Danila Ivanov 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 15-12).
“We won today but our wish is to improve our performance with every game,” Li said.
Top seeds Ruslan Bykanov/Maksim Hudyakov of Russia claimed the top spot in Pool A, even though they dropped a set in their matchup against the Czech Republic’s Marcel Myslivecek/Martin Pihera 2-1 (21-14, 14-21, 15-9).