France and Austria to battle for the Olympic ticket in the Beach Volley Nations Cup Final
After three days of the Beach Volley Nations Cup in Jurmala we reached the crunch time. In the men's race for the last available - for the European pairs - spot in the Olympic tournament at Paris 2024, Sunday's semifinals determined two teams - France and Austria - who will lock horns later today (16:30 CEST) in the grand final with the Olympic ticket at stake.
The day started with Portugal and France vying to secure a spot in the final. Already the first match electrified fans. A fierce battle between Remi Bassereau/Julien Lyneel and Tomas Sousa/Goncalo Sousa required extra time in two first sets and ended in tie-break, which was dominated by the French side. In the opener Goncalo served 4 aces, giving a slight advantage to Portugal, who also led in the second set, having even match points, but Bassereau/Lyneel managed to come back. France made block their powerful weapon - 6 stuffs were delivered by Bassereau and the next 2 by Lyneel. This element next to efficient attack were a key to close the tie-break and the game in their favour (21-23, 26-24, 15-8). Bassereau hammered in total 24 points, Lyneel 18. Teo Rotar was simply unstoppable as in the entire match he recorded 82% of success in attack - delivering his team 16 winning spikes, 4 killing blocks and 1 ace. Arnaud Gauthier-Rat tallied 12 successful attacks (and 1 ace). With such a performance from France, Portugal couldn't find their rhythm and Les Bleus booked a spot in the final.
Teo RotarWe are very happy, we played with a lot of fun. We played our best beach volleyball, we are in the final, so let's go!
Arnaud Gauthier-RatA key to this victory was making a stable side-out and finding solutions on the opponent's offensive plays. We found a key making a lot of trap plays and in the end it paid off, so we are happy about this.
The second semifinal duel between Austria and Latvia also started with a nail-biting three-setter. Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg and Timo Hammarberg enjoyed a strong opening of the game, but the local favourites Ardis Bedritis and Arthurs Rinkevics with solid performance in block came back from a set behind to extend the game into tie-break. Latvians managed to deny a few match points, but eventually Austria prevailed after Hammarberg's killing block (21-16, 17-21, 16-14), who scored 25 points (20 spikes, 4 blocks and 1 ace). His partner had 16 winning spikes. The second game was also dramatic even though it took only two sets to Philipp Waller and Christoph Dressler to beat Martins Plavinc and Kristians Fokerots. The first part was a tight one up until 19-19, then Dressler's attacks made a difference. The second set was from the beginning controlled by Austrians who closed the game in two sets (21-19, 21-15). Christoph Dressler recorded 71% success in attack - hammering 20 spikes, another 13 winning attacks (with 65% success) were performed by Philipp Waller.
Moritz Pristauz-TelsniggIt's a huge win for us, we are super happy to be in the final of the Beach Volley Nations Cup. There was a huge and amazing crowd unfortunately against us, but still it was a great atmosphere to play.
Christoph DresslerWe want to enjoy the final as much as possible. It's the final. The expectations are always the same - to win!
