Lucerne, Switzerland, May 11, 2018 – The third competition day at the three-star US$ 150,000 Lucerne stop on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour will culminate with the first knock-out round in the main draw for both genders, determining the last 16 teams to stay in contention for the medals.
The day is to start with the winners’ matches in the pools, which will determine who qualifies directly to the second single elimination round (round of 16).
First, it will be the games between the first-leg winners in all the men’s pools, with centre court action opening with a Pool A clash between USA’s Sean Rosenthal and Chase Budinger and France’s Maxime Thiercy and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat.
Next on centre court, the home crowd will get a chance to cheer Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson on against Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov in their bid to win Pool G.
“After eight matches and the fourth place at Mersin, we were still a bit tired. Our first match was a hard piece of work and for sure not the best volleyball we can play,” Mirco Gerson said. “To be able to play another home tournament on such a high level (in addition to Gstaad) is amazing for us. We play game after game and, after being successful at Mersin, we would like to reach the semifinals again.”
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Friday’s programme will continue with the winners’ matches in the women’s pools.
Germany’s Kim Behrens and Sandra Ittlinger, seeded second in the main draw, will take on Thailand’s Varapatsorn Radarong and Tanarattha Udomchavee for the first place in Pool B, after which the attention of the centre court crowd will be attracted by the Pool E final between Switzerland’s Nicole Eiholzer and Elena Steinemann and Austria’s Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schuetzenhoefer.
The Swiss presence on centre court will continue into the next session of games, when the survival matches for the third places in the men’s pools will be held. In their quest to stay in contention, top-seeded Nico Beeler and Marco Krattiger will lock horns with Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst and Sven Winter, before wildcards Gabriel Kissling and Michiel Zandbergen measure up to Latvia’s Rihards Finsters and Aleksandrs Solovejs.
This will put an end to the pool phase of the main draw setting off the green light to the women’s and men’s rounds of 24, in which the pool runners-up will go against third-placed teams to battle it out for spots in the last 16.