Semifinals day at Warsaw

Warsaw, Poland, June 30, 2018 – As the Warsaw four-star stop on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is gradually reaching its climax, Saturday’s programme offers three rounds of men’s and two rounds of women’s single elimination play, including the semifinals, which will be streamed live on the FIVB YouTube channel.

The men’s second knockout round will get the competition day going at 08:30 local time and the first ones to take on the centre court at the Monta Beach Volley Club on banks of the Wisla river will be Germany’s Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler and Latvia’s Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs.

An hour later top-seeded Poles Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak will be cheered on by the home crowd in their attempt to advance to the quarterfinals by winning their fixture with Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko.

“To be honest, so far we haven't played well. But sometimes it's better to play worse and win than suffer a loss after a good game. I hope that our game will look better on Saturday, because we cannot allow ourselves to play this way,” said Bartosz Losiak, who has been struggling with some stomach issues since Monday. “It's hard to play - I feel lack of energy and every move on the court causes the impression that my body is somewhere. “

“This is beach volleyball and when one of us feels bad, then the other needs to bear more brunt in blocking or in serving,” Piotr Kantor added.

At the same time, on court 2, the other remaining home team, Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl, will face Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner. “It’s going to be a tough fight, but I hope that it will be our day and, in general, Poland’s day!” Fijalek commented.

Next, it will be the ladies’ turn to take over the four courts for their quarterfinal matches. At 10:30, the fans at centre court will see a remake of the Ostrava final from last weekend, as Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova and Canada’s Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson face each other again, this time in a battle for a spot among the last four.

Their place on the centre court will then be taken by Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos Lisboa - Duda and USA’s Nicole Branagh and Kerri Walsh Jennings.