Vaduz, Liechtenstein, August 9, 2018 – Pairs from Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic and Russia advanced to the men’s main draw at the Vaduz one-star stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour after winning their qualification matches on Thursday.
In the day’s longest running match, Simon Fecteau-Boutin and Hugo Rosso-Bonneau came back from a set down for a 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 15-13) victory over Sweden’s Alexander Herrmann and Ludvig Simonsson after 52 minutes of play in the second qualification round. Earlier, the Canadians claimed a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) straight-set win over Poland’s Martin Chiniewicz and Michal Korycki.
Great dive by Rosso-Bonneau in the match against Poland
Florian Ertl and Mathias Seiser were the lowest ranked team in the qualification bracket that managed to advance to Friday’s main draw. The sixth-seeded Austrians did so after two straight-set victories – 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) over England’s Robert Poole and Harry Jones and 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) and over third-seeded Dutchmen Tom van Steenis and Casper Haanappel.
The two other successful qualifiers received byes in the first round and needed to win only once to progress. Last week’s winners at Ljubljana, top-seeded Russians Taras Myskiv and Valeriy Samoday, mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-11) shutout of Switzerland’s Nathan Broch and Timon Gysin, while second-seeded Czechs David Lenc and Patrik Manas claimed a 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) win over South Africa’s Alistair Glossop and Leo Williams.
Samoday trying to block a shot by Broch