Ayé and Gauthier-Rat only French team still in contention for podium finish in Montpellier
News
The FIVB 1-Star World Tour event in Montpellier resumed on Saturday, eventually determining the teams due to contest Sunday’s semis at 12 and 1 pm. These represent Serbia, Austria, France and Latvia.
Serbia’s Djordje Klasnic/Lazar Kolaric were the first tandem to secure their spot in the semis after a 21-16, 21-19 victory over Jan Dumek and Matyas Dzavoronok of the Czech Republic. Dumek – the oldest player in the tournament at 35 years of age – and Dzavoronok had progressed to the quarterfinals after their Austrian opponents (Mathias Seiser and Moritz Fabian Kindl) in the playoff round had to withdraw from the competition due to injury. Klasnic, who holds a license for France’s Beach Volleyball club Ré, and his partner Kolaric stormed to a comprehensive win.
Austrian qualifiers Maximilian Trummer and Felix Friedl continued their stunning run in Montpellier as they moved onto the semis after edging another team coming from the qualification round – Javier Monfort Minaya and Pablo Perez Suarez of Spain 21-12, 21-10. Friedl, who plays as a blocker, has been particularly impressive so far in the tournament. Earlier in the day, the two Spaniards had edged a team from Norway, Nils Gunnar Ringøen and Svein Oddmund Solhaug, in the playoff:
Javier Monfort Minaya and Pablo Perez Suarez (ESP)“We are happy and surprised that we made it through the qualification and after that we had a good series of matches, winning against teams from France and Norway. Today, however, we were rather tired. In any case, we loved the venue here, and the warm welcome in Montpellier."
Last year’s silver medal winners Quincy Ayé/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat started the day with a French derby against Olivier Barthélémy/Liam Patte, where they showed all of their routine and experience to win 21-12, 21-8, before their quarterfinal match ended prematurely as Joao Pedrosa of Portugal suffered an injury and eventually had to forfeit the match together with partner Hugo Campos.
Ayé/Gauthier-Rat are the only French team still in contention since teenagers Artur Canet/Téo Rotar, 16 and 17 years old, respectively, who had started the tournament by causing a couple of sensations, eventually lost in the quarterfinals 18-21, 12-21 to this year’s U22 European silver medal winners Ardis Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics of Latvia.
Ayé/Gauthier-Rat will be trying to improve on their silver medal winning performance from last year, when they lost the gold medal game to Swedish rising Beach Volleyball stars David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig.
