Anapa, Russia, July 7, 2018 – Russian teams confirmed their dominant role at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Anapa Open as four home sides progressed to the women’s semifinals on Saturday at the VolleyGrad Beach Sports Centre.
As many as seven Russian teams contested the women’s quarterfinals, where Ekaterina Birlova/Evgenia Ukolova beat Cuba’s Leila Martinez/Mailen Deliz 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) to make sure Russia would complete a clean sweep of the medals.
Daria Mastikova/Anastasia Petrunina claimed the first semifinal as they beat Ksenia Dabizha/Yulia Abalakina 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-12) after beating Ekaterina Syrtseva/Anastasia Barsuk in the quarterfinals 2-0 (21-19, 21-19).
“Frankly speaking, we did not expect to be that successful,” Mastikova said. “There are many other strong teams competing here but we are obviously happy, especially since this is only our first tournament together.”
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Reigning U22 European champions Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina beat the more experienced Birlova/Ukolova in the other semifinal 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-11).
“It was a tough match but we got the job done. We had to deal with our own mistakes. Our only goal is to win this tournament,” Makroguzova said.