Tokyo, Japan, July 27, 2018 – Serbia’s Stefan Basta and Lazar Kolaric hit top form on Friday and secured a quarterfinal spot in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Tokyo 3-star.
The Serbian duo defeated Thailand’s Nuttanon Inkiew and Sedtawat Padsawut in straight sets 2-0 (21-14, 21-17), boosting their hopes of earning another World Tour medal.
“We showed a decent game and we are happy that we are getting into shape for Round 3,” Kolaric said. “This is our first tournament to be top seeded in the pool and it was so much easier to play with this advantage. We are happy and satisfied that we are improving our game. We will do our best to reach our second final four.
“Our reception and setting were very good. We also set up good defence in the most important moments of the game to win the point.”
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Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, USA’s Casey Patterson and Stafford Slick and France’s Maxime Thiercy and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat all recorded victories in straight sets to advance to the quarterfinals.
Seidl/Waller beat Turkey’s Safa Urlu/Hasan Huseyin Mermer 2-0 (21-12, 21-19), then Patterson/Slick routed Switzerland’s Gabriel Kissling/Michiel Zandbergen 2-0 (21-14, 23-21), and Thiercy/Gauthier-Rat stunned China’s Gao Peng/Li Yang 2-0 (21-14, 21-12).
Qatar’s Ahmed Tijan/Cherif Younousse, Chile’s Esteban and Marco Grimalt, Germany’s Philipp Bergmann/Yannick Harms and Max Betzien/Jonahtan Erdmann earned their quarterfinal spots with tough three-set victories.