Lausanne, Switzerland, June 22, 2018 - Teams from the Netherlands, Brazil, Denmark and Spain will play for the medals in the men’s competition at the 1-Star event in Manavgat on Saturday.
Jannes van der Ham and Sven Vismans of the Netherlands secured their spot in the semis after a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) victory over Yusuf Ozdemir and Ali Cebeci of Turkey.
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In the other quarterfinals, Brazil’s Oscar Brandao and Luciano Ferreira de Paula beat Gabriel Burlacu and Jake MacNeil of Canada 2-0 (21-14, 22-20) while Danish pair Kristoffer Abell and Daniel Thomsen claimed victory in an all-Scandinavian match against Sweden’s Jakob Molin and Linus Tholse, 2-0 (21-11, 21-18) to qualify to the semis.
“I’m happy that we could win the match and qualified to the semis,” Luciano said. “Thank you to the local fans for the support.”
In the last match of the night, Javier and Alejandro Huerta Pastor of Spain secured the last semi-final spot as they beat Swiss Quentin Metral and Simon Hagenbuch 2-0 (21-19, 21-11).
Turkish home stars in contention for women’s gold
Teams from Turkey, Japan and Belgium progressed to the women’s semi-finals after a long programme on Friday with the Round of 12 matches followed by the quarterfinals.
Aleyna Vence and Merve Nezir opened the quarterfinals against Greece’s Panagiota Karagkouni and Alike Spiliotopoulou. The home stars found their rhythm and celebrated a 2-0 (21-15, 21-3) victory.
“It’s amazing to win the match and we will play for the podium in the semis after I did the same in Alanya,” Vence said. “Many thanks to the fans for their support. I hope this time we can win the gold medal.”
Japan’s Satoko Shiatsu and Saami Shaba fought back to reach the semis with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-8, 19-17) win over Denmark’s Maria Elisabeth Tyndeskov and Line Trans, and there was similar success for compatriots Erika Habaguchi and Yurika Sakaguchi who also defeated a Danish team.
In their case they beat Helle Sondergard and Simone Maria Okholm Hansen 2-0 (21-13, 27-25).
Belgian rookies Sarah Cools and Lisa Van den Vonder completed the semifinal line-up when they beat Greece’s Dimitra Manavi and Konstantina Tsopoulou 2-0 (32-30, 21-15.
“It is unbelievable. We are in the semis at Manavgat Open,” Cools said. “We did not expect this result but we are obviously happy and now we want to win our semifinal match as well.”
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