Germans shine ahead of Queen & King of the Court semis
News
German teams had a good day at the Queen & King of the Court European Finals 2023 on Friday, when a pair of duos from the country won their quarterfinal series in the tournament and made it to the semifinals of the second edition of the event.
Cinja Tillmann/Svenja Müller and Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippmann will lead ten teams from eight different countries into the last day of the event held at the d’Coque, in Luxembourg, when the champions will be crowned.
Emerging from quarterfinal B on Friday were Tillmann/Müller, France’s Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard and Norway’s Sunniva Helland-Hansen/Emilie Olimstad. The Germans, who won bronze at last year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, found their rhythm throughout the series, winning the second round and prevailing also in the third, when they got to 15 points while the French had 11 and the Norwegians six.
The two will have a golden ball to use in the semifinal and will be able to replay a point they had originally lost.
Cinja Tillmann“Things weren’t really working out for us at the beginning of the last round and I was frustrated because I missed a lot of serves. I am happy that I could perform better on the Queen side. The clock runs down so fast that I think that the best strategy is to play point by point. We tried not to think about the last point and just focus on the current one.”
German Beach Volleyball Player
Quarterfinal C also had a German team at the top, with Ludwig and Lippmann finishing the third and decisive round with 14 points, ahead of Poland’s Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Wachowicz, who had 11, and Czechia’s Marketa Sluková/Helena Havelková, who got to nine. The three teams are in the semifinals and the Germans will have the benefit of the golden ball.
Louisa Lippmann“I think we did a very good job in the third round, we were just one point away from ending it at 15 points. In the first two rounds we had a lot of ups and downs, but we made it to the semis and we’re very happy about it.”
German Beach Volleyball Player
The last spot in the semifinals was in dispute in the playoff round, which saw Dutch Brecht Piersma and Emi van Driel dominate the competition, getting to 22 points to beat Lithuania’s Gerda Grudzinskaite/Rugile Grudzinskaite (9) and Czechia’s Barbora Hermannová/Marie-Sara Štochlová (3).
Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova, Austria’s Dorina Klinger/Ronja Klinger and the Netherlands’ Emma Piersma/Mexime van Driel were the first to book their tickets to the semifinal, finishing in the top three spots in the quarterfinal A on Thursday.
The first semifinal round will begin at 11:00 local time on Saturday and will feature Tillman/Müller, Gruszczynska/Wachowicz, Placette/Richard, E. Piersma/M. van Driel and Klinger/Klinger. The second semifinal, at 14;15, will have Sluková/Havelková, Tina/Anastasija, Ludwig/Lippmann, Helland-Hansen/Olimstad and B. Piersma/E. van Driel.
The top two duos in each series will advance to the Finals, as well as the first-placed tandem in a semifinal playoff round scheduled for 17:30. The Queen & King of the Court European Finals 2023 decisive round will be held at 18:30 local time. All matches will be streamed on EuroVolleyTV.