Ios, Greece, June 14, 2019 - The top two seeds of the men's Qualification Tournament at the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1 star event at the stunning location of Mylopotas Beach on the Cycladic island of Ios advanced Friday to the 16-team Main Draw of the tournament which begins Saturday morning.
No. 1 seeds
Marcel Myslivecek / Martin Pihera of the Czech Republic edged Sweden's Jakob Molin / Christofer Lewin 2-1 (21-13, 23-25, 15-10) and second-seeded
Florian Gosselin / Jeremy Silvestre of France shut out Dimitris Apostolou / Sotiris Siapanis of Cyprus 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) in their deciding matches.
But third-seeded Andrey Bolgov / Vladislav Ermilov of Russia were knocked out by the second Czech team of
Jindrich Weiss / Donovan Dzavoronok 2-0 (21-15, 21-13).
Joining the three in making the Main Draw were Norway's
Daniel Bergerud / Lars Tveit Retterholt who beat Russia's Daniil Kuvichka / Anton Kislytsyn 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-13).
Leading the pack in the men's Main Draw are Russia's
Maxim Sivolap / Artem Yarzutkin, seeded No. 1.
They are playing in their 19th FIVB World Tour event, including a gold medal finish at the Kampong Speu One Star tournament earlier this year. In their last appearance before coming to Ios, the Russians picked up the silver medal at the Baden One Star event last week after losing in the final to Austria's Clemens Doppler / Alexander Horst.
Toms Smedins / Haralds Regza of Latvia are the 2nd seeded side in the 16-team Main Draw in Ios, with
Yu Koshikawa / Jumpei Ikeda of Japan entering at No. 3.
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