Beach Volleyball season underway in Lithuania with Klaipeda Beach Pro Tour Futures
News
On Thursday, the Beach Volleyball season started in Lithuania, with a double-gender Beach Pro Tour Futures where as many as 25 teams – even from as far as USA, New Zealand and Chile – joined the qualification round hoping to secure their spot in the Main Draw.
Many spectators gathered to support the home teams at the venue set up in the city centre of Klaipeda. Local favourites Gilbertas Kerpe/Linas Petravicius caused a little sensation as they beat the fourth-seeded team from the qualification, Poland’s Mikolaj Miszczuk/Milosz Kruk 2-1 (15-21, 31-29, 15-8) at the end of an incredibly dramatic match. However, it was not enough to make it to the Main Draw as they lost their subsequent match 1-2 (21-16, 15-21, 12-15) to Markus Mol/Nils Gunnar Ringøen of Norway.
Gilbertas Kerpe (LTU)“It was unfortunate for us. We cannot hide our disappointment, especially as the game was very close. However, this is just the start to the season and the first tournament for us. It was a pleasure to play in a home arena. We lack in physicality, but it is just the beginning, we hope we will have chances to get to other tournaments."
Four men‘s teams eventually advanced to the Main Draw starting on Friday. England’s Issa Moussa Batrane/Frederick Bialokoz easily secured two wins, 2-0 (21-17; 21-14) against Sweden’s Martin Appelgren/Alexander Herrmann and 2-0 again (21-14; 21-14) in their matchup with Rolando Hernandez/Hernan Tovar of Venezuela. Mol/Ringøen first beat New Zealand’s Thomas Hartles/Alani Nicklin 21-16, 21-12 before upsetting the Lithuanians Kerpe/Petravicius.
Mathias Seiser/Moritz Fabian Kindl of Austria celebrated two wins against Latvia’s Rinalds Aispurs/Arnis Relins and Poland’s Piotr Janiak/Jedrzej Brozyniak. Serbian Djordje Klasnic/Lazar Kolaric also progressed to the Main Draw after recording victories in their matches against teams from Turkey and France.
The home teams from Lithuania failed to reach the women’s Main Draw as well. Irina Zobnina and Danielė Kvedaraitė lost 0-2 (19-21, 17-21) to USA’s Jade Race/Tiffany Creamer, and Karolė Virbickaitė/Ainė Raupelytė suffered a similar fate in their fixture with France’s Elsa Descamps and Marine Kinna.
Two teams from Germany – Marie Schieder/Paula Schürholz and Lisa-Sophie Kotzan/Chenoa Christ – comfortably progressed to the Main Draw – as did Americans Jessica Gaffney/Molly Turner and Descamps/Kinna.
On Friday the Main draw will start, with teams chasing valuable ranking points and a share of the prize money at stake.