Lucerne, Switzerland, May 12, 2018 – An all-Swiss clash falls into the spotlight as the round of 16 at the three-star US$ 150,000 Lucerne stop on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is set to get Saturday’s programme underway.
The fourth competition day on the picturesque shores of Lake Lucerne is to start with the ladies’ matches, which will determine all the quarterfinalists.
With all the top six teams still in contention, what could be expected to be the most levelled match, based on the seeding, is the one between Netherlands’ Joy Stubbe and Marleen Ramond-van Iersel, positioned in 4, Ukraine’s Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova, seeded sixth. They will face each other at 10:00 local time on court 4.
“It is great to be in the top 16 at the moment! We are very happy. And we will be very, very happy to be in the top eight,” Shchypkova commented. “It is a beautiful tournament. Thank you, all people who worked on building this amazing court!”
Two more women’s rounds, the quarterfinals and the semifinals, will take place later on Saturday afternoon, so the participants in Sunday’s medal matches will be known by the end of the day.
The much anticipated encounter between two home teams is to happen in the men’s competition. Starting at noon on centre court, top-seeded Nico Beeler and Marco Krattiger will lock horns with Swiss compatriots Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson, seeded 10th, to determine who will stay on to represent the host country as the only Swiss team still standing in the quarterfinal rounds.
The only other countries that will have multiple representatives in the men’s round of 16 are the United States and Germany as four American and two German duos have made it this far in the competition.
Saturday will bring the men’s tournament through the quarterfinals, leaving the semis and the medal matches as part of Sunday’s centre court action.