Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 4, 2018 – Jelena Pesic and Ana Skarlovnik delighted the home crowd at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Ljubljana as they became the only Slovenian team to advance to the quarterfinals. The bottom-seeded pair even emerged top of their pool.
Pesic and Skarlovnik started their main draw campaign with a sensational 2-0 (24-22, 21-19) win over top seeds Martina Bonnerova and Martina Maixnerova of the Czech Republic. The Slovenians went on to defeat Poland’s Agata Ceynowa and Martyna Kloda 2-1 (19-21, 21-13, 15-11) to claim the first place in Pool A and advance directly to the quarterfinals.
“I am quite surprised that we reached the quarterfinals after two consecutive wins in the pool phase,” Pesic said. “I think our biggest mistake is that we underestimate how well we can play. So far we are having a great tournament, although we didn’t deliver our best performance in the second match. We don’t have any big expectations for tomorrow. We just want to do our best and we’ll see how far this will take us.”
Esmee Boebner and Zoe Verge-Depre won both their Pool D matches in straight sets and became the only team that did not drop a set on the way to the quarterfinals. After a 2-0 (21-16, 21-8) win over Hungary’s Eszter Lutter and Szandra Szombathelyi and 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) over Ukraine’s Maryna Samoday and Diana Lunina, the fifth-seeded Swiss duo topped their pool with an impeccable record.
Seventh-seeded Ukrainians Inna Makhno and Iryna Makhno topped the standings in Pool B, while 11th-seeded Sara Olivova and Tereza Pluharova of the Czech Republic did so in Pool C.
Four more teams are still in contention for the semifinal spots after winning their matches in the first round of single elimination - Bonnerova and Maixnerova, Ceynowa and Kloda, as well as Tereza Kotlasova and Daniela Resova of Czechia and Nicole Laird and Brittany Kendall of Australia.